September 25, Ypres Region

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We got an early start today as we were heading into Belgium for the day to spend it exploring the battle sites around Ypres and Passchendaele.

Our first stop was Essex Farm. The medic centre and battleground where John Macrae wrote “In Flanders Fields”. John wrote this after seeing his best friend buried here after he was gassed and killed.

A view of the cemetery. The farm got its name as the first soldier killed and buried here was from Essex County in Ontario.
A picture of the original gravesite at Essex Farm
A bronze image of John Macrae’s timeless poem made from an image of his original handwritten note.

As we walked through the cemetery we found the grave of a young man who joined when he was 14, well underage. His was killed at the age of 15!

It’s a wonder he got through his recruiting officer, but they later held him up as a symbol of bravery to intimidate the British men who were older to step forward and do their duty.

From Essex Farm we headed to the the Julien Memorial. Here stands “The Brooding Soldier”, commemorating the some 2,000 Canadians killed, another 4.000 injured from the 18,000 who fought here. This is where the 1st Canadian division faced the first large scale gas attacks by the Germans on the western front.

The Brooding Soldier
A captivating tribute to those who were lost.

From here we travelled to the largest German gravesite at Langemark where over 40,000 are buried, some 24,000 in a mass grave as the body parts were unidentifiable.

A commemorative memorial all made from iron. See the thousands of poppies made out of iron at the base of the cross.
The graves here are marked with flat stones for the most part. You can see German concrete bunkers in the background. It is said that Hitler visited this site in 1940, deeply frightening a young lad who work on a local farm!

From here we travelled to the Paschedale Canada Memorial. This honors the Canadians who fought valiantly to take back the town of Pachendale and capture the dominating ridge here.

There’s a twin of this arch in Halifax, where 350,000 Canadian soldiers took their last step on Canadian soil before going off to war.
The memorial grounds. Can you see the maple trees surrounding this space, beginning to give fall colours of home to this moving memorial.

Our next visit was to the Tyne Cot Memorial, the largest Commonwealth gravesite in Europe. As we approached the visitors centre there was a woman’s voice reading the names of the fallen, piped through the entrance way and visitors centre. They will never be forgotten.

The graves seemed endless here.
All too often we saw grave markers like these. While the remains are unidentified, individual names of those lost are found on monuments here and other significant memorial places.
Here we see the commonwealth memorial with special tribute to the Australian forces as they captured the last German bunker here and chose this field to bury their dead. This memorial was placed on top of that last bunker by order of King George in 1922.

This was our last stop of the morning so we headed into Ypres for lunch. We found a great little pub with 28 beers on tap! It is Belgium after all! Dan chose a light one as he was driving, but I tried one at the bartenders recommendation which has some cherry notes. Very interesting indeed!

cherry beer, who knew!

After lunch we took a stroll around the old market. Beautifully restored Gothic architecture. Just look at this Cloth House!

This key market building is known as the Cloth House. Here was the market centre for the cloth trade bringing in raw materials as well as fine woven and embroidered materials.

After lunch and a short walk around the town centre we were off once again to explore some memorials before returning to Ypres for the memorial service at the Menin Gate.

Our first stop was the site of the famous Christmas Truce at Prouse’s Farm. Here we saw some interesting memorials

This bronze memorial (buried under football scarves) was donated by the UEFA in commemoration of a football match that took place between the Germans and the Allied forces during a truce on Christmas Day. This was the first and only time this type of truce was called.
Here we can see preserved trenches from this battle site.

We then meandered down a small farm track road and came to a cemetery named Toronto Avenue. We were curious about the name, thinking there would be some Canadian here.

This small cemetery is the only one to have only Australian soldiers buried in it. Apparently, the name comes from the name of the trench from
which they were fighting. Each trench was given a street name, and the one this group was fighting from was Toronto Avenue

As we followed the farm track out to what we thought was a visitors centre, we found this memorial to the fallen and lost soldiers from Australia and New Zealand.

The rotunda in the centre has the names of all the fallen and lost soldiers carved along the inside walls.

Time for one more stop before heading back to Ypres for dinner and the memorial service. We headed off for Sanctuary Wood. The Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62) memorial and museum complex near Ypres, Belgium, is significant because it marks the site of the Battle of Mount Sorrel in 1916—the first major planned offensive operation undertaken by Canadian divisions during World War I. 

The Monument at Sanctuary Wood is a design used at all Commonwealth grave sites with the exception of Vimy Ridge. It is known as the “Cross of Sacrifice”. This design serves as a uniform, central monument in Commonwealth military cemeteries containing 40 or more graves.

It was finally time to head back to Ypres for an early dinner. We had a little time before our dinner reservations so we took another walk around the market square, this time stopping off at the beautiful cathedral we had seen earlier. The St Martin’s Cathedral, built in the 12th century was completely flattened during heavy bombardments of WWI. It was meticulously rebuilt between 1922 and 1930 to match its original gothic design.

Here we see the beautiful Rose window above the entrance to the transept.
The high altar featuring beautiful stained glass windows.

We had an additional treat when we entered the church. There was to be an organ recital this evening at 8 pm, and we heard them practising. in the piece we heard there was an organ and flutes duet… simply beautiful!

Time to get our dinner and then take our place for the memorial service at the Menin Gate . What a moving service indeed. At precisely 8 pm, a bugle trio played The Last Post. This was followed by the laying of the wreaths by Great Britain and the commonwealth nations.

You can see the setting sun highlighting the Menin Gate. It was 7:10 and three were already people gathering for the service. At 7;30 they close the roadway to traffic and more people fill in on the street.
A crowd has gathered that filled all available space under the arches of the Menin Gate
A beautiful a cappella choir sang during the laying of the wreaths
The wreaths are laid

This moving service was over, and it was time to get home. Tomorrow we will be focused on Vimy Ridge. But on the way honey, we decided to stop by the memorial as it was a full moon and we wanted to see it lit up. We were not disappointed!

Vimy Ridge memorial at 10 pm on a clear night with a full moon. It was incredibly moving. The fact that we could see it from almost 2 km away demonstrates the dominance of this memorial in this area.

Well it’s time to put this bed, and I will be following close behind! Until tomorrow!

Categories: Northern Europe: Beer, Birthdays and BattlefieldsTags: , , , , , ,

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