Remembrance - For the Fallen

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

'For the Fallen'
1914 - Robert Laurence Binyon 

Ypres Cathedral

St Martin's Cathedral church in Ypres was originally built in the 1300s. During WWI it was heavily shelled and almost completely destroyed. From 1922 to 1930 the ruins were cleared and the church (no longer actually a cathedral) was rebuilt to its original design, although its tower has a higher spire than the original. It is beautiful inside, relatively light and with a soaring vaulted ceiling. Much of the stained glass appeared to be modern and very richly coloured.

I had no tripod so I had to brace my arms on a chair back to hold my camera steady. The off-centre result seems quite pleasing to me, even if it would win no prizes in an architectural photography competition!

Tyne Cot war cemetery

Tyne Cot is one of the largest British and Commonwealth burial grounds in Belgium for the dead of WWI. It also has a memorial wall listing the names of some of the missing, those whose remains have never been found. Some of the gravestones themselves are carved with names but many, many of them are simply inscribed 'A Soldier of the Great War. Known unto God'.

The cemetery is a strangely peaceful place, despite the many visitors. It continues to be beautifully looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I was glad to have seen it when the roses were blooming. The gashes of red against the white stone seemed an evocative symbol.

In Flanders Fields

Ypres has a recently established museum, 'In Flanders Fields', housed within the town's reconstructed Cloth Hall. It explores the history of the Ypres Salient through artefacts, personal stories, photographs, audio-visual presentations and interactive screens. There is no glorification of war. One comes away convinced of its futility and uncomfortably aware that the terrified columns of civilians fleeing conflict have merely shifted to other countries and continents...

I found the strange beauty of the rusty and battered bullet cases, collected from the killing fields around Ypres, incredibly moving.

Memory, let all slip save what is sweet
Of Ypres plains.
Keep only autumn sunlight and the fleet
Clouds after rains.
Blue sky and mellow distance softly blue;
These only hold
Lest I my panged grave shall share with you.
Else dead. Else cold.

Ivor Gurney, October 1917.

Ypres

The town of Ypres occupied a strategic position during WWI, standing in the path of Germany's planned sweep to the Belgian coast and the Channel ports. It never came under German control but the town itself was reduced to ruin and has since been reconstructed, faithful to the detail of the original buildings. The Menin Gate, at the eastern entrance to the town, is a memorial to the missing: British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient but whose bodies have not been found. The memorial is inscribed with over 54000 names but was found to be too small to contain the all names of the missing and so another 34000 are commemorated on a memorial in Tyne Cot cemetery. Every evening at 8pm buglers (from the local fire brigade) play the Last Post here, a tradition started in 1927 when the gate was unveiled and continued unbroken apart from a period during WWII.

Traces of the First World War

Of course, sadly, Belgium is known for more than its beer and chips and many choose to make a pilgrimage to the battlefields of WWI. It was something I felt I wanted to do, perhaps should do, at least once in my lifetime. Although I have not been able to trace any family members who were killed overseas, I do remember one great uncle who had a prosthetic arm as a result of injuries he received during WWI, though he never spoke of his experiences. The tour I chose took in the city of Ypres, a central point in the long stalemate between German troops and the Allied Forces, plus one of the Commonwealth War cemeteries and a small museum called Sanctuary Wood.

Sanctuary Wood, in the so-called Ypres Salient (a salient is a battlefield feature where the front line projects into enemy territory) is one of the few places where the original trenches can still be seen. The front line around Ypres moved back and forth over the four years from 1914 to 1918 and was the scene of some of the worst and bloodiest battles of the Great War. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives and many thousands more were maimed in body and mind. For all the horror and carnage, only some five miles of territory was lost and gained over those four long years.

The small museum owes its existence to a farmer, who simply collected up the artefacts he found on the land around. It is all displayed in rather a muddle but is no less interesting for that. In fact perhaps one comes away with a stronger sense of the chaos and futility of war because it is not all tidily and slickly presented.