In Flanders fields

[Niels]

Earlier this week I had the pleasure to go on a three day trip to West Flanders, the city of Ypres in particular, together with my girlfriend. The trip was a birthday present. The whole of Belgium, along with many other country's, still pay very much attention to the disaster that took place from 1914 until 1918. During this massive slaughter 10 million men were killed and an additional 65 million were wounded. Figures no one can quite grasp. The Netherlands were neutral during the first war, taking up many refugees, so little attention is being paid to the 'Great' war. More so to the second world war. However, it still moves me deeply and I think many of you will find this interesting. Hence why I have started this topic. What maybe struck me most is that most of the tombstones have the age of 23, 24, 25 written on them. Being that age myself it made me realise just how lucky I am to be here right now. As many of you on this forum are of a similar age I think we are all a very lucky bunch that we can allow ourselves to complain about details on a certain toy model, whilst we live in freedom, for which many many many men gave their live.

 

I must hastily add that all these photographs were taken by my girlfriend so no credit goes to me. I am her very thankful for taking them!

 

Our tour of world war one started in the 'In Flanders Fields' museum. It was completely refurbished last year and is definitely worth the visit. Every visitor gets a 'poppy' bracelet which is your personal connection with WW1. During your museum visit you can read or see information about particular subjects that are similar to your origin, age, place of birth etc...

 

Just one shot of the museum's collection. They have thousands of interesting objects and story's. Could spend hours going through them!

 

The museum is located in the Cloth Hall in Ypres. After WW1 it looked like this: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/paverpol/Ieper2005/IeperLakenhal1919.jpg and so did the rest of the city. Churchill wanted to leave the ruins as a memorial for the (British) forces but the citizen carefully rebuild the city back to it's original prestige.

 

Every day at eight o clock sharp the Last Post is blown under the Menenpoort. This arch was build by Reginald Blomfield as a memorial for all British Commonwealth soldiers that died in WW1 and could not be given a known grave. The arch holds 54.896 names, which was insufficient. Another near 35.000 are listed at Tyne Cot cemetery, which we'll see in a bit.

 

[Niels]

Every day, since 1928, volunteers of the local fire brigade blow the last post at eight O clock. In 2015 they will be doing this for the 30.000th time! What an amazing achievement.

 

A visit to one of the very very many burial sites that lay across West Flanders. This is located on the city ramparts at the Lille gate. It is a tiny place, by comparison, with a 197 individual graves. The youngest soldier buried there is William Scholz, at the age of 17 years.

 

A better view of the Menenpoort. An impressive building to say the least.

 

 

Names of the fallen soldiers are both on the inside and outside on large stone plates.

[masseyferguson390]

I've been to all the places in your photos on a school trip, it was very moving, and we also visited alot of battle fields across France and Belgium

[Niels]

This is Menin Road South Cemetery. Sadly not as well kept, which is an exception.

 

On January first we took the 'Ypres Salient' route of 70 km by car. This will take you past the most important sites of WW1 in the area. There are six of these routes, all leading to different places and in different areas. This is Essex Farm Cemetery where Canadian officer John McCrae wrote his famous 'In Flanders Fields' poem. Making the poppy thé sign of WW1.

 

A beautiful cemetery which holds 1185 graves. Essex Farm was a first aid post where McCrae worked.

 

The bunkers where McCrae worked, and his staff of medical people, to treat wounded near the front. Some of the bunkers (build later during the war) survived.

 

Next up was one of the largest German cemetery's in the area, the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Langemark. West Flanders now houses 4 German cemetery's. Shortly after the war there were German burial sites in 679 different Flemish towns! Though this number was greatly reduced and the bodies were centralised.

[Niels]

Altogether a much more grim place compared to the shiny white cemetery's of the Allies.

 

A mass grave holding 24.917 bodies of which 7977 unknown.

 

Then onto one of the most beautiful and best kept cemetery's I have visited in my life; Tyne Cot in Passchendaele. It houses 11.956 graves of Commonwealth soldiers and 4 German ones. 8369 of these are unknown men.

 

A breathtaking place.

 

[tractorbob]

all who fought in that war ,were very brave men ..total respect to them ..

[Niels]

Tyne Cot Cemetery also has the names of 34.957 soldiers that were killed after August 15th 1917 and whose names would not fit on the Menin Gate!

 

Part of the names written on the wall. These are all from New Zealand. Most are British.

 

A picture of the French Saint-Charles De Potyze Cemetery. It houses 4224 graves of French soldiers that died in Flanders Fields.

 

Again, well kept, like most of these sites.

 

A visit to one of the very few battle sites that look pretty much the same as they did between 1914-18. This is Hill 60, a hill of 60 metres above the surface, that was undermined by Australian and British tunnelers to blow up German defences.

[Niels]

The largest mine crater is 15 metres deep and 80 metres wide! They used 32 tonnes of explosives! Nearly 700 German soldiers were killed but, like many WW1 events, little territory was eventually gained. Yet again a slaughter on both sides.

 

The site changes changes 7 times during the course of the war. As late as spring 1918 the Germans retake these positions.

 

Another fantastically well kept cemetery is Bedford House. 5210 men rest here, plus 2 Germans. It wasn't designed by the usual architects so it is altogether different.

 

We were accompanied by beautiful weather during our trip. I sincerely hope that everyone of you on here which have not done so before can take some time to re-visit these places. They will leave a big imprint on your mind, especially if you are British, American, Canadian, Australian or from New-Zealand.

 

Hopefully you've found this topic interesting!

[Jdeere6910]

Thanks for posting those pictures niels. Brings back some memories of the school trip we went on, visited all of those places. It's a truly humbling expirience stood amongst the rows and rows of graves, especially on a quiet warm day. Just so peaceful

[graham]

many thanks for posting and putting pics up

we owe them so much

[ab16]

I was in Ypres on a school trip. It is hard to believe how many people were killed in such a small area. When on the trip the tour guide told us that people in the area are still being killed as a result of unexploded land mines, especially farmers when they are ploughing. Its incredible, that almost 100 years on the people in the area are still being massively affected by the war

[powerrabbit]

I believe Neils that the War graves site at Menin looks the way it is because it is the site that is being 'constructed' if that's the right word, to bury soldiers remains that are still being discovered by archaeologists that are working on excavating the old trenches, there was a very good TV programme screened here last year showing the excavations and when remains were discovered they were meticulously excavated, any personal belongings preserved and DNA taken in oeder to try and identify the remains hoping that a name could be put to them. The families of the soldiers lost with no known grave were asked, if they wished, to give a DNA sample to create an archive for the purpose of identifying any remains that are found that cannot be identified by any other clues.

 

I have no knowledge of any of my family relations being involved in the Great War as many of the male side were farming and it was never mentioned although I did have a Great Uncle that was in the Army at this time in the Catering Corps but wheather he saw any action or no I don't know, he was born in 1896 and died in 1988 aged 92, I still have very fond memories of this wise, dry humoured old man.

 

No-one should ever be allowed to forget the period 1914-18, they said that it would 'be the War that ended all Wars', how wrong could they be? And to me, how ironic it is that our Monarchy is decended from the German leader (Keizer). I remember from history lessons that when the troubles started that if only our Royal Family at that time accepted the Keizer and his family to come to the UK as 'refugees' that the conflict would probably never happened, but they refused to.

 

I hope that history will never repeat itself, although it has a nasty habbit of doing so. Conflicts nowadays have shifted from the political to that of religon but all through history conflict between nations and peoples have always swung between the two.

[Niels]

Tim: You mean the names at Tyne Cot? There are still empty plaque's there for more names to enter! Bedford Cemetery was set up in six plots and plot one and six were later removed, hence why it looks a bit off. As you say the last has not yet be found and probably wont in the next 100 years. The amount of stuff dug up annual is staggering. 2500 tones of explosives per year alone! Most of this is done by farmers of course. There's a large gathering of volunteers, the Diggers, that dig up WW1 founding s, body's, tunnels, trenches etc.. Whenever you stick a spade in Belgian soil your likely to come across some stuff.. Mind you that is the same in many other parts of the world. Think of Russia. Only, this is less well documented.

 

Thank you all for the nice comments!

[lewis11]

I went to all of the pictured places in November on a school trip, it is truly incredible-I found it very touching.

[MDFord]

Thanks for sharing these pictures with us Neils. What a contrast the peace and tranquility of the cemetaries is to the horrific battlefield conditions those poor young men fought and died in. We must never forget the ultimate sacrifice of so many of that generation.

I shall be visiting Ypres for a few days in May, am looking forward to seeing all this, and paying my respects.

[Deere-est]

I too have done 'The Battlefields Tour' and stayed in Ypres as a 15 year old school boy. Tyne Cot is an image and a memory which will never leave me, line upon line of white headstone all placed upon a German machine gun post I believe, the two forward bunkers, one central command one under the cross and the two rears where now each end of the wall stands.

Another thing which will forever stay with me and I have no problem admitting it - at 15 when your expected to be cool, popular and above all not a wet fart(!!!) I stood at Menin Gate for the last post and cried. It is terribly sombre hearing that echo in such silence. God know what men of the same age I was then and just a few years older went through nearly 100 years ago.

[powerrabbit]

Talking about the ages of the soldiers and how young they died don't forget that a great number lied about their age and managed to get accepted for service, some were as young as 14 so when you see 'private Joe Bloggs 4th Infantry aged 21' on a headstone he could just be one of those. Sobering thought.

[Leakeyvale]

I believe Neils that the War graves site at Menin looks the way it is because it is the site that is being 'constructed' if that's the right word, to bury soldiers remains that are still being discovered by archaeologists that are working on excavating the old trenches, there was a very good TV programme screened here last year showing the excavations and when remains were discovered they were meticulously excavated, any personal belongings preserved and DNA taken in oeder to try and identify the remains hoping that a name could be put to them. The families of the soldiers lost with no known grave were asked, if they wished, to give a DNA sample to create an archive for the purpose of identifying any remains that are found that cannot be identified by any other clues.

....

A friend's uncle was lost during the Great War and she contacted the War Graves Commission to find out what happened to him as she could find no record of his burial.  It was just as the first 24 bodies were found in a mass grave.  Kath was asked to give a DNA sample and her uncle was identified as one of the 24.  She was later invited by the WGC to attend the ceremony when the remains of the 24 were re-interred.  She found the whole thing very moving and was touched to discover that fresh flowers on the graves and memorials were placed there regularly by the local people.

 

Thanks Neils

[super6]

Talking about the ages of the soldiers and how young they died don't forget that a great number lied about their age and managed to get accepted for service, some were as young as 14 so when you see 'private Joe Bloggs 4th Infantry aged 21' on a headstone he could just be one of those. Sobering thought.

I have just read a book about Boy Soldiers Of The Great War by Richard Van Emden. The very first recorded casualty for the British Army was an under age infantry man, Private John Parr aged 17 years and 33 days who died on 21st August 1914. He was a regular having enlisted in 1912. There were many more and even younger although a lot of these were weeded out before being sent over seas.

Edited January 4, 2013 by super6

[Niels]

Thank you all for your kind comments! Like I said before, if you have a chance to go and see this area, you really should!