Ypres trip, a report (quite long)

[zimbo]

We were booked on a very early crossing on Eurotunnel for Saturday morning, Douglas had ridden over on Friday on his 999 in glorious sunshine and had sent a text to say he had arrived safely.
Having collected Ducbird Friday evening we had a late evening run down to Slough and grabbed a couple of hours sleep at Sweetpea’s place. Up at 3 to make the tunnel for 5 am Saturday, an uneventful crossing (we assume – we were fast asleep for most of it!) and off into France, an hour’s drive and we were on the outskirts of Poperinge, where we had arranged to meet Douglas at ten. Before we did that though there was something Ducbird had wanted to do, lay some flowers on a grave at Lissenhoek Military Cemetery on the outskirts of Poperinge, so we went there first. Lissenhoek had been Viv’s first exposure to the horrors of the Ypres trenches on a previous visit, and it had made a powerful impression on her – particularly the ages of many of the boys killed there. She laid her flowers, wild poppies, at the grave of a 16 year old Australian boy killed there, and we spent a reflective half hour walking round. Lissenhoek is a beautiful cemetery, so peaceful and immaculate, and the 10,300 odd graves there lie in the most perfect peace – very moving. Poperinge was behind the front lines and was the base of the Ypres Salient British military command, these thousands of bodies were not killed outright in the trenches but died of their wounds in the military hospitals round Poperinge.






We then went into Poperinge and found Douglas easily, sat at a town centre café. We sat down, had coffees and something to eat, and made some plans for the weekend.
There were a couple of things we wanted to see in “Pop” as it was known by the soldiers, first we looked out the Shooting Post, the post condemned soldiers were tied too when they were executed by firing squad. If you were accused of cowardice or desertion you were court marshalled by a court of three officers, and if found guilty you were sentenced to death at dawn by firing squad and taken to the cells overlooking the square. At dawn you were brought out, hooded and tied to the post, the charges read, a piece of cloth was pinned over your heart for the squad to aim at, and then shot. The firing squad consisted of six men, only one rifle was loaded with live ammunition and the other five with blanks so you didn’t know if it was you that had fired the live round. Official records show eight men shot in Poperinge “for purposes of example” although it is believed the true number is much higher. The Shooting Post is preserved, still against the wall in the courtyard, and it bears bullet scars still. An excellent audio re-enactment of the execution of a 17 year old soldier exists in the cells, all free to visit, very thought provoking.
Having reflected on this for a bit we moved on to Talbot House, a large house in the town

http://www.talbothouse.be/

Talbot house was once a large private house. It was rented in 1915 to army Chaplain Philip Clayton, who opened an “everyman’s club” where all soldiers were welcomed, regardless of rank. It became a “home from home” to thousands, a place you could relax and forget for a few hours. The house is preserved as it was and is well worth a visit, with a peaceful garden and three floors of reception rooms and small bedrooms, the fourth floor Attic room still preserved as a chapel visited by countless thousands. Original maps and documents still hang on the walls, the map being smudged dark brown with traces of Flanders mud in the main places locally in the war by many soldier’s fingers. There is also a “friendship list” – you could list names of comrades you had lost touch with and their names were typed into a list and displayed, if others knew of them they would write in borrowed pencil in the margins – “wounded, back to Blighty”, “killed in action” or sometimes still serving elsewhere. The lists still bear the pencilled comments. You can actually stay at Talbot House, they rent the rooms out on a bed only basis for a modest fee, self catering.

[zimbo]

We went for a drive to Ypres and went round the Cloth Hall museum, very good, with a lot about the town history. Ypres never fell into German hands in the 1st war but it was very close to the front line and was extensively shelled. At the end of the war the town was totally reduced to rubble with no buildings left standing, the medieval Cloth Hall and Cathedral included. The town was completely rebuilt after the war, preserving the original design, and you would never guess walking through the town that it had been destroyed so recently.

Ypres in 1917


We had some time to spare so we drove out to the Military Cemetery at Tyne Cot, some five miles out of Ypres. Tyne Cot was built with the base of the Cross of Remembrance being formed from a German bunker, still visible beneath the Portland stone. The cemetery holds over 11,000 graves, including one of three army boys killed in the Salient aged only 15 years. The curved rear wall is engraved with some 35,000 names – soldiers who were killed in the Salient and who’s bodies were never found. These names were meant to be inscribed on the walls of the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres, but there proved insufficient room on the walls and these names are in addition to the 55,000 inscribed on the Menin Gate, making around 90,000 in total - these are just the ones who’s bodies were not found, a huge number you just can’t appreciate until you see the scale of the walls needed just to write their names.

[zimbo]

Finally it was back to Ypres to attend the Last Post ceremony. This has taken place every single day since 1923, apart from when the town was occupied by the Germans during the second world war. The ceremony was resumed as the town was liberated, whilst there was still hand to hand fighting on the outskirts of the town, and has been carried out every single day ever since. The ceremony draws many visitors every day, mostly British or from the colonies but also many Belgians, Dutch and Germans, and people from all over the world.
Dinner in a local restaurant, back to the hotel for a few drinks, and finally bed!
We did have to rescue Douglas's 999 from a troupe of morris dancers who had taken part in the last post ceremony and laid a wreath, and were now entertaining the bemused Begians in the town square!!

Menin Gate, Last Post ceremony


Ypres Square

[zimbo]

On Sunday we had a pleasant breakfast on the terrace and finally, after just one more coffee and slice of Madiera cake, we made our way to Hill 62 in Sanctuary Wood. There is a private museum here on farmland run by the same family for three generations, consisting of a wooded area with some preserved trenches as they were left after the war, many of them running underground, and a lot of artefacts recovered from the area, stacks of four inch shell cases and many shells, rifles pistols and machine guns, swords, helmets and equipment of all kinds, lots of barbed wire and supports, a fascinating array much of it loosely piled in a room. The also have a collection of 3D photos, viewed in wooden boxes with two eyeholes to look through and a knob to turn the picture reel. These were quite fascinating, hundreds of photographs showing the total devastation of the landscape, not a tree standing, just splintered trunks, the ground churned by shells, and many graphic pictures of dead and mutilated soldiers and horses of both sides, holes in the heads, legs blown off, bodies hanging in tries where they had been flung by shell blasts, stuff you are generally protected from but which does carry a very powerful message.
Outside we walked through the wood to see the trenches, but my attention was taken by the landscape – the ground is still pockmarked, even today, with clearly defined shell craters full of water and mud. There is mature woodland around but some old tree trunks are preserved from the war, splintered and only a few feet tall, full of shrapnel scars. It’s easy to imagine the trees gone, the shell craters still fresh, and having to pick your way through the landscape hindered by barbed wire and heavy machine gun and shell fire. The trench layout is very complex and disappears underground in places through long tunnels, muddy and wet underfoot.

[zimbo]

We went back to Ypres for lunch, stopping briefly at a place called the “Huge crater” but found the crater itself had been filled in and there remains only a museum. The crater was one of 23 resulting from underground mines laid by tunnellers who dug down from the trenches and out under the enemy trench network. They hollowed deep caverns out under the enemy trench network and filled them with 500,000 tonnes of high explosive, all of which was detonated minutes before a big offensive, just before the men went “over the top”. The blast was felt in London. Unfortunately too large a time gap was allowed between the mines being set off and the men going over the top, and the enemy machine guns had recovered and got back into position, mowing down the advancing troops and repelling the attack. One such crater still exists on the Somme (most were filled back in) and that crater is all of 300 feet across.
Douglas got back on his bike and set off to catch his tunnel booking, and Viv and I went to see the Pachendale battle museum. The Pachendale battle was fought in late 1917, after the heaviest sustained rainfall for centuries, turning the ground to thick deep mud which made troop and equipment movement almost impossible and life a misery for the soldiers. The battle lasted 100 days and cost the lives of 400,000 men for a gain in territory of just 5 miles, which was lost again the following April in a German counter offensive. The museum there has a very good reproduction of the underground systems built by 20,000 professional miners brought in for the purpose, thousands of men living deep under the muddy earth for months.
Finally we made our way to Polygon Wood, site of an Australian memorial and a very peaceful and beautiful large cemetery containing the graves of over 2100 soldiers, many of the Australian. Only 428 of these could be identified, and most are “known only unto God”. Sitting in the bright sun on the immaculate lawns, gentle breezes stirring the attractive woods surrounding the cemetery and with beautiful Portland stone memorials surrounding us, we spent some time reflecting on all we had seen, the waste of half a million
young allied lives in just a few square miles over the four years of the war, it certainly makes you think and re-evaluate your own life.
A final dinner and beer in Poperinge and we were back to catch the tunnel home, but we will be going back . . . . .


Cemetrey at Polygon Wood, with the New Zealand Memorial in the background




Australian Memorial, seen through the New Zealand memorial


The same spot in 1917

[Lin]

Not sure what to say thats appropriate.

[zimbo]

One last picture, just to balance things up a bit:



yum yum

[zimbo]

Originally Posted by Lin

Not sure what to say thats appropriate.

I know, Morris Dancers performing in Ypres, I was left speechless as well . . .

[998gsb]

Excellent write up Zimbo... wish we could have been there - Leper is very moving and as you say its difficult to imagine that it was literally raised to the ground less than a 100 years ago looking at the buildings now.

If you organise a trip next year - put me down for it.....

[ducbird]

This has been a very moving and emotional trip for me.
Graeme opened my eyes to WW1 on the way to Assen and we visited
Lissenhoek Military Cemetery at the time...
On this trip i really wanted to go back, infact i felt such a strong yearning
to take some flowers to the grave of the 16 year old soldier that i first set
eyes on i asked if Graeme could take me back there.
After laying some poppies from Hereford and from the roadside by the cemetry
i reflected on the ages of the men again, someone so young, the average age
being about 27 of the 10,000 or so laid to rest there.
Its a very peaceful, calm resting place for them. This i would come to realise
after the information and pictures i was about to be exposed to...

The shooting post and cells were to be my first experience... you can enter the cells
and you can see the shooting post from the little window...i could only imagine what
must have been going through the mind of the men about to meet with their death.
The reason they were about to be shot could be one of many, that terror took
hold of their reasoning and they just couldnt move to continue the fight on the front
line....
An audio in the cell played a soldier about to meet his death...with the shot that finally
killed him......thought provoking.....

Talbot House .. i was aware of the peace and calm at this house which must have been such a santuary for the men. It houses a museum with accounts and so many
artifacts from the war which explains easily what went on.
A santuary a world away from the front line and trenches ...

Cloth Hall Museum .... to see Ypres just flattened to the ground the devastation
nothing standing at all just barren land!! A film you can sit and watch soldiers dying
the guns, firing ,the mud... you just cant imagine fighting in it never mind living in it...
My eyes are certainly being opened on this trip..

And then we make the Last Post the second time around for Graeme and myself.
It doesnt fail to give me goosebumps the trumpets sound and my eyes scan the names
that are all around us on the Menin Gate .... im humbled...

[zimbo]

Originally Posted by 998gsb

Excellent write up Zimbo... wish we could have been there - Leper is very moving and as you say its difficult to imagine that it was literally raised to the ground less than a 100 years ago looking at the buildings now.

If you organise a trip next year - put me down for it.....

I'm sure that can be arranged after the epic trip you guys have just made, this one will be easy!

[ducbird]

Day two

We are to visit Hill 60 where there are still trenches to visit and walk around..
Its sited in the woods.. We pay to go in and enter a room with pictures and allsorts
of memories of the War
But the one thing i will never ever forget are the picture boxes i was about to be
exposed to.. the pictures that we are not shown to protect us (whatever!!).
I couldnt believe what i was seeing the bodies the horses the the men living in mud
I will remember these pictures for the rest of my life the body of a man hanging from
a tree, no leaves on it just a trunk with some branches left on it. Shelled up there..
Horses hanging from trees..
Men died where they fell, not even peacefully the look of pain and horror on their
faces calling for help...the devastated towns. I can see where the phrase it looks like
a bomb site comes from but i hope we never get to experience it.
The land is just bombed and churned with every item body bones churned up with it
Its total destruction and devastation.
Im left speechless!!!

We go outside the craters still left from the shelling, they are massive and so deep and full of water...and men had to jump into these.
We enter the trenches .....i have a little idea of what it was like to be in there but there was no mud in the little bit we able to walk in. It had wooden boards but i started to imagine what it would be like with mud and awful smells and so many men..to be honest i havnt the faintest idea of what they lived in everyday for so long we cant even comprehend it....
I leave here with some food for thought and sights i wont ever forget...

[ducbird]

To Pachendale and the Museum..
Again well laid out and the story told .... what was thought provoking here
was the awful weather and the fighting that went on for a small strip of land
5 miles wide ..The rain continuing with the men living in water, mud and clay
My God how much more do these men have to put up with...im asking myself
just what is this about, my mind is just working overtime trying to process all
this new information that i have...
Here at the Museum is an underground wooden underground system that you can
walk around... the sound of guns firing constantly unfamilair noises to me but i can
also see that some of the noises may be comforting.... I feel on edge just walking
around there i feel really closed in and Graeme startles me just touching my shoulder..
How did these men feel...Again how did they cope when they were sent for rest periods
It must have sent them mad being in the quiet of life with greenery around them.
I couldnt have imagined how it felt. Silence is deafening. I can see it would be after constent noise in their life...

Our last visit of the day is Polygon Wood and i finish my trip with a visit to the Australian Memorial... and im left with my memories of the 16 year old Australian
whose grave i put flowers on to the finish of this trip to the Australian Memorial...
Graeme is taking final pictures and im suddenly overawed by all the things i have seen
i sit with tears rolling down my cheeks and the peace and calm that is at the Cemetry
For all the sheer noise devastation grey world and bleakness that the War came with ..
these young men have a resting place that they deserve and i realise that this didnt just affect those men.It affected their families and the generation that was left
WW1 really did change life as it was known then...

Its just such a pity it has taken to this point in my life to become aware of just what
happened in this War i was so totally unaware and protected from it...
Until Graeme bought it to my attention.. So thank you for bringing me back to explore further..

We will be back but on the bikes next time...

[Ghost]

Superb pics Zimbo and a write up that would make the hardest heart flutter, one can look at those pics and reflect for a very long time.

[jay748]

great post . Ypres is such a beautiful town with a very sad legacy .my great grandad was killed at st julien during the 3 rd battle of ypre,s also known a passendale the area is truly hallowed ground . hoodge is especially moving said to be by the tommies the most hated and easiest place to die on the western front years of endless carnage ,it was easy to die at Hoodge . the hotel there is supposed to be very biker friendly and theres trenches and mine craters in the grounds .

im hoping to visit again this year work permitting .

j