Battle of Passchendaele, 1917.

Three British soldiers stare down down at a dead German during the battle of Passchendaele, ca. September/October 1917
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The conditions surrounding Passchendaele were about as close to hell as you could get. Weeks of flooding and constant artillery bombardment turned the area into an uprooted quagmire, with no-mans-land resembling a murky lake, and making the makeshift German and British trenches into shallow graves infested with disease, mud, and decomposed bodies of men who were once very much alive. Conditions were so bad some men and horses even drowned in the mud. Nearly 700,000 soldiers would die in the short 3 months of warfare surrounding the small Belgian city.
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"We could not believe that we were expected to attack in such appalling conditions. I never prayed so hard in my life. I got down on my knees in the mud and prayed to God to bring me through."
- Private Pat Burns, 46th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Passchendaele, November 1917.