In Flanders Fields

We arrived in Ypres and Michael pretty much straight away caused a disturbance.  We discovered that the Ypres Rally was being held the weekend we were staying so many of the streets were blocked off.   

 

We parked the car and headed towards our hotel when Michael tried to cross the street and was abruptly pulled up by a policeman and told to go back to the other side of the street.  Michael indicated that we only wanted to go to our hotel but the policeman was firm – Michael had to return to the sidewalk.  When Michael did, the policeman then indicated that Michael could now cross the road.  The road was really a narrow laneway, all of about 3 paces across and there was no traffic at the time.  I think that the policeman just wanted someone he could direct.  Michael was not happy!

French Cemetery Ypres

French Cemetery Ypres

Ypres was almost completely flattened during the First World War and it is incredible to see how it has been completely rebuilt to its former glory and in its original style.  Churchill had wanted the town left as it was, to be a permanent memorial to the fallen however the Belgian populace was not happy with that idea.  It was decided to build the Menin Gate as a memorial instead.

 

Menin Gate Massed Pipes

We arrived in time to see the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate and we were lucky enough to attend the ceremony on each of the three evenings we were there.  The gate itself is a large archway over the road and commemorates the missing in Ypres and whose graves are unknown. There are 54,896 Commonwealth soldiers names inscribed in the large Hall of Memory.  Incredibly not all of the names of the missing would fit on the memorial so another 34,984 are inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.  It is a humbling experience to walk under the archway and look up at the almost never-ending list of names.

 

The Last Post ceremony takes place at 8.00pm every single evening of the year and has done so since July 2^nd 1928, only interrupted by the Second World War.  Traffic is stopped at 7.30 pm and at exactly 8.00pm four buglers from the local fire brigade sound the Last Post.  Sometimes there is an extended ceremony where wreaths are placed and bands perform.  On one of the evenings we attended a Scottish Pipe Band played.  There were several thousand spectators there on each of the nights we were there and to hear the hush fall over the crowd as the haunting strains of the bugles sounded is very emotional. Side note – Simon Crean seems to be following us – he was there as well!

Cot Tyne

The Memorial Museum of Passchendaele was next on our list.  It was a very informative museum with reconstructed trenches that we could walk through which gave us a glimpse at what it must have been like to live in them.  We also had a look at Polygon Wood where the battle occurred an also the main cemetery which holds over 107 graves.

4th Division Memorial and cemetery near Polygon Wood

4th Division Memorial and cemetery near Polygon Wood

The Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing was a very sombre place to visit.  The sight of row upon row of headstones is confronting enough but then, as mentioned earlier, there is the list of 34,984 missing soldiers.  As we wandered around the cemetery, we could see that pieces of paper had been left at some of the graves.  Closer inspection revealed that Australian schoolchildren had visited and left poems that they had written and placed on random Australian soldiers’ graves.  Reading the simple, sad lines that the children had left had a profound impact on me. 

Hill 60 Crater

Hill 60 German Pillar Box

We went to the Essex Farm Cemetery where Lt Col McCrae wrote the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” that is so familiar from remembrance services the world over and saw the bunkers that contained the advanced dressing station that he worked in. 

Sussex Farm Cemetery

Sussex Farm Cemetery

Advance Aid Post

  

Above Advance Aid Post

Side note – the poppies really do grow wild all throughout Flanders and the Somme.  They are the most vivid crimson colour and they grow along the roadside and all through the fields.

Popperingine A town of hops and beer