Not sure if I have put this in the right forum but I am going on a long weekend jolly(in the car) to Holland at the start of next month and was thinking of paying a visit to Ypres en route.
Will only be able to spend a couple of hours there ,mid/late am on the Friday.
Any recommendations on cemeteries/monuments to visit ?
Thats something I plan on doing myself one day. Cant help with anything specific but this link may give you some guidance…
Ypres is a town that must be visited, there is the Menin Gate, every evening ( and I mean every ) a bugler plays the last post, you can visit the “In Flanders Fields” museum. Seeing as you will be going after Armistice, you will, when you get there, see all the floral tributes that have been laid on the 11th. The town itself was completely destroyed but rebuilt after the end of the war.
Here are a few pictures:
google.fr/search?q=Ypres&tb … =909&dpr=1
Some may, or probably will, bring a tear to your eye.
Thanks for the replies and links. Would like to do the Menin gate thing but as I said, unfortunately,will only be able to spend a couple of hours there, in the daytime.
GreatWar 1914-1918
In Flanders Fields
Flanders Poppy on the First World War battlefields.
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Inspiration for “In Flanders Fields”
Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery. (1)
Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery (source: A Crown of Life)
During the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2nd May, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres. An exploding German artillery shell landed near him. He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.
As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away somewhere else on duty that evening. It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, John began the draft for his now famous poem “In Flanders Fields”.
I went to Ypres (Leper) last year and the visit has stayed with ever since.
The Menim Gate contains names on stone panels of around 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Salient but whose bodies have never been identified or found and that is what struck home with me big time. The Regiments of present and yesteryear and the countries where they came from are all identified on the panels. There is a metal cupboard (inside the right hand archway coming from the town centre) that contains an A-Z directory of the names of the fallen and the panels on which they are to be found and there is also a book of remembrance located inside.
There are two war grave cemeteries, Ypres Reservoir Cemetery and Ramparts Cemetery Lille Gate which are within easy walking distance and both contain the metal cupboards with the directories and remembrance books inside.
R.I.P. to all the fallen.
My Great Grandfather is named on the Menin Gate, a Sjt with 4th Gordon Highlanders died at the age of 42 on 25/09/1915 previously served on the North-West Frontier of India and in the South African Campaign.
Being ex military myself I take pride in remembering the 6 members of my family who gave it their all in both World Wars, Gallipoli, Flanders, Paschendaele and at sea.
I’ve been many times to the Menin Gate to pay my respects, and I’ll admit it’s a overwhelming emotional few moments and I’ve shed a tear as I’ve saluted in front of the panel where his name is engraved.
The day will come we’ll have a dram until then BYDAND
Lest We Forget
Suedehead:
Not sure if I have put this in the right forum but I am going on a long weekend jolly(in the car) to Holland at the start of next month and was thinking of paying a visit to Ypres en route.
Will only be able to spend a couple of hours there ,mid/late am on the Friday.
Any recommendations on cemeteries/monuments to visit ?
The Menin Gate is surrounded by ceneteries Essex Farm and New Irish Farm, Tyne Cot, there’s other sites such as Hill 60 just down the road towards Poperinge.