IN FLANDERS FIELDS

Battlefields and places of interest in the Ypres Salient, Belgium, the return of the Menin Gate lions and the ANZAC Day dawn service, April 2017.

(Title from the poem In Flanders Field by John McCrae and more photos in the photo gallery The Battlefields of the Ypres Salient and Anzac Day)

With the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele this year, it is a good time to visit the battlefields of the Ypres Salient, Belgium. Here are some of the more interesting places we found on a recent visit.

 

It is always nice to see how the other half live, though in this case it was more a case of how they lived and died.  We were wandering in the German trenches of Bayern Wald, once part of the front line in the Ypres salient, Belgium, in the First World War.

Several miles away the soaring towers of  the Ypres Cloth Hall and cathedral were visible over gentle undulating country. Other than briefly in the opening stages of the war, the Germans never gained Ypres.  They were pushed backed to the eastern ridges beyond it, the Belgians flooded the flat lands to the north and so this area became the scene of intense fighting as the Germans sought to break through to control the channel ports whilst the allies were equally determined to stop them.

 

The front line bogged down here for the next 4 years,  advances measured in metres and mud as hard fought gains were lost again. Blood too as the devastated land and artillery shredded bodies until that which was recovered after the war, if at all, was barely recognisable as human and could only be designated ‘an unknown soldier’.  Some 90,000 men obliterated to the extent that only their names are left to us carved on the great war memorials.. And that is just on the Allied side.

Bayern Wald & the Pool of Peace

Now perfect peace reigns in Bayern Wald, the only sound being birdsong and the rustle of the breeze in the trees. The trenches date back to 1916 and now snake through green grass, zig zagged to minimise shell damage. There are two (closed off) 40 m deep shafts leading down to 300 m long tunnels that were used as listening posts.  The bunkers were like dog kennels: German regulations stipulated that the ceiling could not be higher than 1.20m in order to discourage a defeatist attitude. It is also an interesting fact that a certain A. Hitler served in this area.

Further up on the Messines ridge we visited the Spanbroekmolen Crater or the Pool of Peace, a 75m diameter pond surrounded by trees. It’s perfect symmetry belies its origins: it was created by one of 21 allied underground mines set to explode on 7th June, 1917 at 03.10 am. (Two didn’t, one exploding in the 1950’s after a lightening strike and the other is still out there somewhere..) This one was the largest of all with 91,000 lb of explosive buried 27m underground and reached by a 521 m  gallery.  Unfortunately it went off 15 seconds late and so killed the allied advancing infantry too, some of whom are now buried in the little Lone Tree cemetery on the other side of the road.

So started the Battle of Messines, which was a complete success in dislodging the Germans from the ridge and which ultimately led to the Third Battle of Ypres and the bloody morass of Passchendaele on 31st July 1917, with its 100th centenary this year.

Langemark German Cemetery & Gas Attack

The German cemetery at Langemark is also an interesting stop and quite a contrast to the more garden like Commonwealth War Graves. The stones are a sombre black, laid flat on the earth and there are scattered groups of gothic stone crosses. 44,294 people are buried here in an attractive wooded setting: the oak is the national tree of Germany. This is known as the student’s cemetery as 3,000 young student volunteers are buried here: they were mown down in 1914 when faced with the more experienced Allied troops. A statue of brooding comrades by Emil Krieger stands over the graves.

 

It was also near here that chemical warfare was born on April 22nd 1915 when the Germans released 150 tonnes of chlorine gas from 6000 canisters. The French and Algerian French troops bore the brunt of the gas. At Vancouver Corner a striking memorial stands to the Canadian troops who held the line here for 2 days after the gas attack, losing 2000 men. It is an 11 m high granite column with a ‘Brooding Soldier’ on top, bearing reversed arms (the gun barrel pointing down) as used for military funerals.

The Menin Gate

 

 

 

 

 

 

This great Memorial to the Missing in Ypres bears the names of 54,389 officers and men from the UK and the Commonwealth (except New Zealand and Newfoundland) who died up to 16th August 1917 for whom there is no known grave.

In the war years, there was just a gap in the defensive ramparts here and it was through this that the troops marched out onto the Menin Road and so on out to the battlefields.

 

At the time there were two stone lions flanking the entrance. In 1936 they were given to Australia by the grateful people of Ypres and have since been on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

However, this year (2017), in order to mark the centenary of major battles in the Ypres Salient, Australia has returned the lions on loan to the Menin Gate until 11th November, Armistice Day.  They were unveiled on the eve of Anzac day and we were lucky enough to be able to attend the ceremony at the Menin Gate.

Since 1927   – with a break for WWII – the Last Post has been sounded at the Menin Gate every evening at 8 pm in homage to all those who died in the war. The lion unveiling was part of an extended ceremony on April 24th with various speeches and a beautifully sung Waltzing Matilda, which one could easily imagine the troops singing as they marched off to war.

The Last Post sounded for the 30,645th time and as the veils fell away from the lions it was quite emotional to think of them coming home to the Menin Gate and of all that they had been through and seen. Sitting proudly on their plinths, their fierce gazes were once more turned towards the battlefields, and they seemed to embody the proud, undefeated spirits of the troops, who, as one man said, ‘were themselves like lions’.

After all this high emotion, we fell in with the rush to the nearest hostelry, conveniently situated on a corner just inside the gate. The Ypra Inn (Menenstraat 43) is where the Last Post buglers drink and is a pleasantly down to earth pub. As well as a good beer selection, it also has a wide range of whiskies. They do a tasty soup and toastie combi for a good value 10 euros.

 

However it is a good opportunity to try the local ale, the ‘Wipers Times’, brewed by Brouwerij de Kasematten (Open for visits on Saturdays/Houten Paard 1/ www.kazematten.be ) in the same cellars today that once housed the famous Wipers Times trench gazette. If you visit, look out for the red half-a-horse statue coming out of the ramparts!

ANZAC Day

(Australian and New Zealand Army Corps 25th April)

 

Now it was time to remember the many Commonwealth troops who died here. In the dark of a bitterly cold April 25th morning, we parked our car near Zonnebeke and caught one of the shuttle buses laid on for the occasion (belgian.embassy.gov.au). This took us to Buttes New British Cemetery at Polygon Wood where the one hour dawn service started at 6am. This area was the scene of fierce fighting, changing hands several times and now has a memorial to the 5th Australian Division and the New Zealanders.

 

 

 

There was once a troop gun training ground here, hence the ‘butte’, a high earthen embankment. As a bright day dawned it revealed the silhouettes of soldiers on the top of the butte, standing to attention. Droplets collected on the noses of the soldiers who motionlessly guarded the memorial with bowed heads and the expelled breath of the singers hung in the air. One could not help but think of the troops who had waited silently on similar dawns for the order to go over the top.

There were various addresses and prayers, interspersed with the haunting lament played on the bagpipes. A sweet rendition of ‘Fly Bonny Boat’ accompanied the wreath laying then the song of the famous poem In Flanders Field.  The Last Post echoed back from the woods in the clear air and it was all very moving.

 

Those better organised than us had booked a seat for breakfast, laid on by the village of Zonnebeke and only 5 euros. We stayed on the bus and headed home to warm up. There was the option of a further, briefer ceremony at Tyne Cot later that morning but instead we called in later in the day when it was quieter.

Tyne Cot

Tyne Cot is both a cemetery and a vast Memorial to the Missing, the latter being 34,887 men who died from 16th August 1917, the date of the Battle of Langemarck.  There is a curved wall of Portland stone over 150 m long with rotundas and apses: everywhere there are names engraved in sobering multitudes, a plethora of lives interrupted.

Soberingly,  it is also the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, containing 11,954 burials. When the ridge was captured by the allies in October 1917, one of the German blockhouses was used as an Advanced dressing station and the irregular graves here show these early burials. It was retaken and in German hands from 13th April – 28th September 1918, when finally recaptured by the Belgians in the last stages of the war. It was George Vth on a visit in 1922 who suggested the Cross of Sacrifice be placed on top of the blockhouse. There are another 2 within the cemetery.

Today, the brilliant white headstones rather than poppies stand ‘row on row’  and bear silent witness to the events of those traumatic days.

 

The Bluff, Hill 60 & Caterpillar Crater

Time for a walk!  Three walks have been created to explore the landscape and battlefields of the Ypres Salient with ‘north, east and south’ entry points.  We decided to explore the southern option  which starts in the Palingbeek Provincial Park. There are 2 short circuits but they can be linked up to make an easy 4km walk which follows the old one front lines.

There is a short video at the start then we were off to the Bluff through pleasant undulating woodland, the ground still pockmarked by many craters. The front line here remained fairly static between November 1914 and 7th June 1917, with no-man’s land only about 150m wide. Here the British occupied the high ground, a huge earth mound created by the excavation of a nearby failed canal project. The path leads to the top of this and you can look out over the old front lines.

The Germans captured the Bluff on February 16th, 1916 after many underground mine and infantry attacks, killing 352 British troops. The British lost another 300 in regaining it on 2nd March 1916 but by the end of the year further mines had so damaged the area that it had lost any strategic value.

The walk continues along the old front lines and up to Hill 60, which is one of the most important places of the Ypres Salient.  This 3 hectare hill was created from the earth excavated from a railway cutting and fell into German hands on 10th December 1914. Underground mining operations helped to dislodge them on 17th April 1915 but the Germans recaptured it on 5th May after a successful gas attack and fortified it with bunkers.

More mining followed with a 700m tunnel extending at a rate of 5m a day finally leading under Hill 60 and another branch to the Caterpillar on the other side of the railway line. Finally on the 7th June 1917, they were part of the chain of great explosions along a 15 km stretch of the front and the ensuing battle pushed the Germans back 1 ½ km.

However their spring offensive of 1918 regained the hill which they then held until September 1918 when it was recaptured for the last time by the British 14th Division, whose monument now stands nearby.

If nothing else this walk demonstrates the nature of this backwards and forwards war.

The hill today is just a rough cratered landscape with a remaining bunker whose embrasures changed according to whom was holding the hill at the time.  There is also a memorial to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company whose memorial has bullet damage from WW11.

As you head for home, the walk takes you past Caterpillar Crater, a perfectly formed 79.2m diameter, 15.5m deep pond today. 31,752 kg of explosive were buried 30m underground when they exploded. There are benches where you can sit and contemplate the folly of mankind.

Essex Farm & John Macrae

Essex Farm developed into an Advanced Dressing Station during the 2nd Battle of Ypres in 1915 and sits on the northern outskirts of Ypres.  The large bunkers they used have been restored and it is here that the Canadian doctor and 1st Canadian Field Artillery Company major, John McCrae, is believed to have written the famous poem ‘In Flanders Field’. His company moved into the area on 23rd April after the German gas attack and he helped tend the wounded in these dug outs in the embankment of the nearby canal.

 

A friend and fellow officer in the same unit, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on the 2nd May 1915, and McCrae conducted the burial service. As he later looked at his friend’s grave, he was struck by the poppies which had sprung up on the disturbed earth, and so was born the famous poem.

The adjacent cemetery has the poignant grave of a 15 year old soldier, Valentine  (he was born on Valentine’s day, 1900) Joe Strudwick, a rifleman in the Rifle Brigade who died on 14th January 1916; he had lied about his age to join up and was one of the youngest to die. Just follow the fake grass to find the grave, it is obviously a popular stop.

Yorkshire Trench & Dug Out

This original British trench system dates back to 1915 and 1917; it was rediscovered in 1992 and lies rather incongruously within an industrial estate, not very far on from Essex Farm. The 1915 trench was only 2 yards behind the 1917 one and a section of the 1917 trench has been reconstructed so that you can walk through and see the entrances to two dugouts and tunnels (closed).

 

The British had an extensive underground bunker system below the trenches with workshops and sleeping areas. These were pumped out and excavated:  the fascinating finds are now displayed in the In Flanders Fields museum. On display at the site is a reconstructed A frame duckboard as used in the trenches: this modification enabled the water to drain away so that the troops were no longer standing in water.

205 bodies of British, French and German soldiers were found in the area, but it was only possible to identify one Frenchman. All were buried with full military honours. Most of the British dead dated back to an action against the Germans on 6th July 1915.

In Flanders Fields Museum & Belfry

There is some dispute with my husband as to whether it is best to visit this superb museum (9 euros + 2 for belfry/www.inflandersfields.be) which sits in the middle of Ypres, first or last. If first, it does give an excellent overview of the war. I tend towards last as you will have visited many of the areas talked about and they have a superb film whereby the modern landscape is superimposed on the war one so you can relate to what you have seen. Their aerial view along the Messines ridge really shows the chain of bomb craters from 7th June 1917 for example.

It is located within the old Cloth Hall which was flattened in the war and basically rebuilt. An heroic effort by the townspeople: the building was started in 1200 and only finished in 1304, at which time it was one of the largest buildings in the world. Ypres was then a prosperous weaving town and it was here that all the cloth and wool were traded. The lions actually started life here guarding a stairway until a restoration saw them moved and they ended up at the Menin Gate in 1862.

The belfry is well worth the extra 2 euros: there are superb views in all directions and you can locate the ridges where the fighting took place as well as Tyne Cot and Passchendaele. On the way down it is worth lingering until the hour in order to hear the carillon of bells: there are 49 and the effect is quite enchanting.

Until 1817 the town had a bizarre ritual of throwing live cats from the belfry. Luckily they came to their senses and since 1955 when the festival was revived they have used soft toys. It takes place every three years, the next being 14 May 2018.

The Cloth Hall also has a pleasant open plan cafe within its walls, and the Tourist Office. Pick up details of the battlefields, walks and cycle rides here.

Hill 62/Sanctuary Wood Museum

Here are more well preserved if dilapidated British trenches, which due to the large number of visitors, still look rather bare and muddy today, so perhaps there is a certain air of authenticity about them. There is also a 4 ft high connecting tunnel and the remains of an original blasted tree.

 

The museum is well known for its 3D stereoview photos, some of them fairly gruesome. Otherwise, one rather gets the feeling the place is neglected, the mannequins are risible and items are badly displayed with little information.  The 8 euros entry seems quite high: it probably is worth a look but I was left feeling rather ambivalent about the place.

A little further up the road is Hill 62 and a Canadian Memorial.  The Germans captured it, and nearby Mount Sorrel, on 2nd June 1916 and fierce fighting followed to try and regain it with the 1st  Canadian division attacking on the 13th June at 01.30. Though the Germans were driven back, the Canadians suffered some 8,430 casualties including 1000 killed and 1,900 missing.

Today there is a fine view over rolling Belgium countryside to all sides. Back down the hill, at Sanctuary Wood cemetery, there are 1,989 burials, many bought in from other areas. Lieutenant G. W.L. Talbot is buried here, in whose memory Talbot House in Poperinge was named. It became a famous club behind the lines and is still a museum and hotel today(www.talbothouse.be)

Bedford House cemetery

We had time to fit in one more cemetery and visited Bedford House just south of Ypres. It is an especially picturesque one as it located within the grounds of the old Chateau Rosendal and its moats have been incorporated into the graveyard design.

The chateau was behind the front lines for all of the war and was used as an Advanced Dressing Station but was eventually destroyed by German artillery. Only some stairs and an ice house remain within the cemetery. Reeds rustle in the breeze and swans glide past. There are 5,139 WW1 burials but also 69 members of the British Expeditionary Force who fell in May 1940 – it is strange to note that even within the space of 20 years the little words on the bottom of the headstones had become more informal and emotional.

It may be of interest too that Michael Morpurgo came across Private Peacefull (original spelling) here who died of wounds on the 4th June 1915 when serving with the Royal Fusiliers.

Lest We Forget

Finally it was time for us to head home, via Poperinge which was a place of R & R behind the lines. En route, we passed the Mendinghem cemetery, an offshoot of one of the area’s casualty clearing stations: with typical wry British humour, the troops had called them Mendinghem, Dozinghem and Bandaghem.

From here trains took them home on leave. So many never made that train – it is to remember them that we visit the battlefields, to admire their courage as we look out over open spaces where they once attacked through a sea of mud, rushing into machine gun fire unprotected by any armour, or enduring the trenches where artillery pounded them.

 

Practicalities

Where to stay

We stayed at the Camping Jeugdstadion (Bolwerkstraat 1/www.jeugdstadion.be), in a great location about 20 minutes scenic walk from town on the far side of the eastern ramparts. The grassy walk-in campsite is great (the car is parked on the road  outside but very close through fence) and only 11 euros for 2. The motorhome area was a bit like a car park with everyone quite close together. We had bicycles with us which were great for zipping into town.

Getting around

A car will be useful or join the locals on a bicycle – it is fairly flat easy cycling and there are several places to hire them around town. There are 2 battlefield loops of  45 km and  36 km if you have the time and they are a great way to spend the day: leaflets are 2 euros at the tourist office. There are also great walking trails along the ramparts from the Menin Gate.

Drinking & Eating

As well as the Ypra Inn at the Menin Gate, we liked Boerenhol (Vandepeereboomplein 21). This also has a small quirky museum and so has lots of war stuff around. Quite local: food doesn’t go beyond a toastie but it has a great atmosphere.

Try Il Gusto d’Italia on the corner of Grosse Markt for hot waffles and Karamel is a great little cafe (Menenstraat 9) on the Menin Gate strip.

 

Souvenirs

We liked The British Grenadier (Meensestraat 5) near the Menin Gate for books and war paraphernalia. If you want to take a mud encrusted gun or grenade home, this is the place to look.

 

 

Passchendaele Commemoration Program 2017

For more information on all the events surrounding the commemoration of 100 years since the battle of Passchendaele, check out www.passchendaele2017.org