British Queen Marks WWI Battle
Thousands of people are gathering to pay tribute to the half million soldiers who died 90 years ago on Flanders Fields, one of World War I's bloodiest battles.
Belgium's Queen Paola and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II led commemorations yesterday just outside the village of Passchendaele along with leaders from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to remember the Battle of Passchendaele. It was the last of several large battles that pitted British and Commonwealth soldiers against Germany on the war's western front.
The dignitaries are expected to lay wreaths at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth burial site in the world, located just a few miles from Passchendaele.
The Battle of Passchendaele saw the first use of mustard gas against troops. Even now, the remains of soldiers, bombs, and gas canisters are still dug up every year by farmers plowing the region's fields.
