Monday 21 September
Eurostar from St Pancras to Lille is a one hour and 25 minute journey. A short coach ride through northern France takes us into Belgium and the town of Iper (Flemish) or Ypres in French.
However you name it, Iper was virtually obliterated by German shelling during World War 1 and only five houses were left habitable. The remains of the cloth hall and the cathedral below.
From 1922 onwards, the town was rebuilt using drawings of the original streets and buildings and with great attention to detail. This remarkable project took eight years and was funded by the Belgian government. Germany was bankrupt and therefore could not pay any reparations until at least the 1980s.
Look at Iper now, wonderful. The market square, cloth hall and cathedral. ↓
Tempting Belgian chocolate on display in the town shops. ↓
In the Flanders Fields Museum.
After spending the morning in the superb Flanders Fields Museum in Iper, we spent the afternoon walking in the southern Iper Salient. We walked along part of the former German trenches, looked out across 'no man's land' and then followed part of the former British trenches which were just a few yards away. It felt strange being in such a tranquil rural area and thinking that below our feet in the woods and fields could be the undiscovered remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.
Looking into no mans land beyond the British line. ↓
Hedges grow along the line of the former German trenches. ↓
The remains of a canal lock with shell and bullet damage.
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A beautiful and peaceful resting place.
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Wednesday 23 September
The Essex Farm Cemetery is where the Canadian doctor, Lieutenant John MacCrae wrote the poem: 'In Flanders Fields'.
Sometimes soldiers' remains were found tangled together and so they were buried together:
Only 15 years old. ↓
Below left: Pte Thomas Barrett, V. C.7th Battalion. South Staffordshire Regiment
27th July 1917, aged 22.
The Yorkshire Trench with an underground shelter which served as the HQ for two battalions.↓
Our guide standing on part of an 'A Frame' which was designed to keep the soldiers' feet above the awful mud.↓
Shortly after the war, some of the homeless Iper civilians moved into former bunkers. They often lived in these tough conditions for years before returning to rebuilt homes.
The German Langemark Cemetery
Hitler visited this place on 1 June 1940, following the German occupation of Belgium after the Battle of France in May 1940. His visit to Langemark Cemetery included paying respects at the mass graves of German soldiers who had fallen during the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. The cemetery, known for its 'Students’ Graves' and the mass grave of 24,917 soldiers, was a site of symbolic importance, particularly for Nazi propaganda purposes. We met some Dutch students here. I was told that Germans rarely visit the Flanders WW1 sites.
Throughout this part of Flanders, trees are numbered and marked blue, denoting where the British WW1 lines were, and red denoting where the German lines were.
Below is the Saint Julien Memorial to Canadian soldiers near Langemark. The precise number of Canadian dead is not known due to incomplete record keeping in the midst of battle. It is thought that between 61 000 and 66 000 Canadians died.
In a 48 crucial hours in April 2015 when the Canadians held the line, 6,035 Canadians – or one man in every three who went into battle – became casualties; of that number, approximately 2,000 (or one man in every nine) were killed. The 11 metre tall Brooding Soldier appears to be thinking about them all.
Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passchendaele
Tyne Cot Cemetery is simultaneously a battlefield, a cemetery and a
memorial to the missing. The latest Commonwealth War Graves Commission records cite
11,968 graves in the Tyne Cot Cemetery and an additional 34,936 names on the memorial
walls. German concrete blockhouses captured during the fighting of 1917 still
stand among the graves.
The Menin Gate
The Menin Gatein in Iper is a memorial to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died at the Iper Salient and whose graves are unknown; 54,395 of them! Every evening in Iper, at exactly 8 o’clock, the police halt the traffic passing under the Menin Gate Memorial to allow the buglers to play their simple and moving tribute. The Last Post, the traditional final salute to the fallen, is played by the buglers of the Last Post Association.
Everyone can attend this ceremony free of charge. I was amazed at the size of the crowd and was told that such a gathering was the norm throughout the year.
Thursday 24 September
Another fine and dry day for a walk, which we took along the Bellewaard Ridge. What was once a devastated mass of shell holes and mud is now farmland. Sadly a farmer occasionally dies when working in the fields and striking unexploded ordnance.
We then visited the small but very interesting Hooge Museum. For example, I did not realise that there were so many different types of grenade.
Friday 25 September
We walked from our town centre hotel to the Iper station and caught the train to Ghent, which is the largest city in Flanders and third largest in Belgium behind Brussels and Antwerp. The city was bustling with people. Its population of nearly 273 000 includes 90 000 students.
A local beer to accompany our last lunch in Flanders.
Saturday 26 September
Home after a thoroughly interesting visit to a very impressive part of Belgium.
