For no other reason than respect and a sense of proportion.
Ninety years ago, between the months of July and November, more than half a million men died in the rain-sodden fields of Belgium in World War One's last great attritional battle.
Passchendaele was the third battle at Ypres, the bloodiest and biggest for the British army and its empire forces. It started on July 13, 1917.
The mud stopped tanks and all but immobilised infantry who were decimated by a new battlefield horror - mustard gas.
The village of Passchendaele was finally taken on November 6.
The offensive cost the British about 310,000 casualties, while around 260,000 Germans were killed.
"A more terrible sound now reached my ears. From the darkness on all sides came the groans and wails of wounded men, faint, long sobbing moans of agony and despairing shrieks. It was horribly obvious that dozens of men with serious wounds must have crawled for safety into shell holes and now the water was rising about them, and powerless to move, they were slowly drowning. And we could do nothing to help them."
Soldier of the line at Hellfire Corner, Ypres Salient, October, 1917
