Ypres | 'Some Gave All But All Gave Some'
I was lucky enough to be able to visit Ypres in Belgium this week to see the trenches and WW1 cemeteries over there. It was very eye opening and emotional, I was very grateful for the opportunity to pay my respects.
We visited the Flanders Fields museum first, it showed remnants from the war, depictions of the five battles of Ypres, the timelines and so much more information about the town. I learned that Ypres itself is only less than a hundred years old as it was reduced to rubble and dust in the first World War and had to be rebuilt. It was rebuilt as an exact replica which is why it looks so medieval. It is surrounded by a moat with four gates to enter the town, probably the most important being Menin Gate where Last Post is held every evening at 8pm. The names of 54,000 missing soldiers are written over the walls of the Menin Gate.
We then went on to visit Hill 62, a small woods with preserved trenches that you can go into. The land was bought by a family after the first World War and has been preserved by them since, there is also a little museum on the land with pictures, artefacts and old medals.
After this, we visited Tyne Cot to pay our respects, a British commonwealth war cemetery with over 11,000 bodies buried there, of which at least 8,000 are known unto God and their names are written on the walls of Menin Gate or amongst the 35,000 names written on memorial stones at the back of the cemetery. A lot of the soldiers buried at Tyne Cot are buried in the exact spot they died in as they would have been buried immediately on the battlefield, but most were buried after the war. There are actually four German soldiers buried there where they died.
It is a beautiful memorial and it blew me away just how many graves there were.
Our next location was Langemark, a German cemetery where more than 44,000 soldiers are buried. I couldn't believe the difference in size to Tyne Cot, even though Tyne Cot only held a quarter of the amount. There is a mass grave at Langemark where over 24,000 soldiers are buried due to the Belgians not wanting to give the Germans much space after World War 1. There are two British soldiers also buried here amongst the other graves and 3,000 school students who were killed in the first battle of Ypres are buried in the third part of the cemetery.
We then visited Essex Farm, another commonwealth cemetery with a monument reading the famous John McCrae poem 'In Flanders Fields'. Valentine Strudwick is buried here, a soldier who died at the age of 15 after lying about his age to gain entry to the forces and there were so many crosses, teddies and letters at his grave to pay tribute.
There is also a dressing station at Essex Farm, hidden under grassy hills. Dressing Stations were places where injured soldiers were taken to have their wounds tended to, they would then be sent to a Casualty Clearing Station where it would be decided if they were fit to return to the trenches or if they needed to be sent home. This is where the phrase 'shot yourself in the foot' actually comes from, because soldiers would literally shoot themselves in the foot in order to be sent home from war. If they were caught doing this however, their punishment depended on their country. As a German, they would either be put to death or sent back to the front on a penal battalion which basically amounted to a death sentence anyway. British and US soldiers were sentenced to prison terms.
Our final destination was Last Post, where a tribute to the courage and sacrifice of those who fell for the town is held every single night at 8pm at Menin Gate. Bugles are sounded to open the ceremony before wreaths are laid and they're sounded again before the ceremony closes. The attendees are asked not to clap out of respect and silence is expected throughout the ceremony. It has been carried out every night since 1928 apart from the four years of German occupation in the Second World War, during this time it was held at Heathrow in the UK.
It was an eye opening day and Ypres is a beautiful town, I find World War 1 history fascinating so I enjoyed learning so much visiting all of these places.
Until next time...
G x
We visited the Flanders Fields museum first, it showed remnants from the war, depictions of the five battles of Ypres, the timelines and so much more information about the town. I learned that Ypres itself is only less than a hundred years old as it was reduced to rubble and dust in the first World War and had to be rebuilt. It was rebuilt as an exact replica which is why it looks so medieval. It is surrounded by a moat with four gates to enter the town, probably the most important being Menin Gate where Last Post is held every evening at 8pm. The names of 54,000 missing soldiers are written over the walls of the Menin Gate.We then went on to visit Hill 62, a small woods with preserved trenches that you can go into. The land was bought by a family after the first World War and has been preserved by them since, there is also a little museum on the land with pictures, artefacts and old medals.
After this, we visited Tyne Cot to pay our respects, a British commonwealth war cemetery with over 11,000 bodies buried there, of which at least 8,000 are known unto God and their names are written on the walls of Menin Gate or amongst the 35,000 names written on memorial stones at the back of the cemetery. A lot of the soldiers buried at Tyne Cot are buried in the exact spot they died in as they would have been buried immediately on the battlefield, but most were buried after the war. There are actually four German soldiers buried there where they died.
It is a beautiful memorial and it blew me away just how many graves there were.
Our next location was Langemark, a German cemetery where more than 44,000 soldiers are buried. I couldn't believe the difference in size to Tyne Cot, even though Tyne Cot only held a quarter of the amount. There is a mass grave at Langemark where over 24,000 soldiers are buried due to the Belgians not wanting to give the Germans much space after World War 1. There are two British soldiers also buried here amongst the other graves and 3,000 school students who were killed in the first battle of Ypres are buried in the third part of the cemetery.
We then visited Essex Farm, another commonwealth cemetery with a monument reading the famous John McCrae poem 'In Flanders Fields'. Valentine Strudwick is buried here, a soldier who died at the age of 15 after lying about his age to gain entry to the forces and there were so many crosses, teddies and letters at his grave to pay tribute.
There is also a dressing station at Essex Farm, hidden under grassy hills. Dressing Stations were places where injured soldiers were taken to have their wounds tended to, they would then be sent to a Casualty Clearing Station where it would be decided if they were fit to return to the trenches or if they needed to be sent home. This is where the phrase 'shot yourself in the foot' actually comes from, because soldiers would literally shoot themselves in the foot in order to be sent home from war. If they were caught doing this however, their punishment depended on their country. As a German, they would either be put to death or sent back to the front on a penal battalion which basically amounted to a death sentence anyway. British and US soldiers were sentenced to prison terms.
Our final destination was Last Post, where a tribute to the courage and sacrifice of those who fell for the town is held every single night at 8pm at Menin Gate. Bugles are sounded to open the ceremony before wreaths are laid and they're sounded again before the ceremony closes. The attendees are asked not to clap out of respect and silence is expected throughout the ceremony. It has been carried out every night since 1928 apart from the four years of German occupation in the Second World War, during this time it was held at Heathrow in the UK.
It was an eye opening day and Ypres is a beautiful town, I find World War 1 history fascinating so I enjoyed learning so much visiting all of these places.
Until next time...
G x
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