Flanders Fields

Yesterday we went on a day tour to the WW1 battlefields and memorials of the Ypres Salient. A very memorable day in many ways. Not only did we see Polygon Wood, the battlefield of Hill 60, Tyne Cot cemetary, monuments to the British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian Forces but also visited the imposing Menin Gate at Ypres. Here, Rob left a poppy beside the name of his Uncle who was killed somewhere in this area and buried in an unmarked grave. A very symbolic gesture for the family.                                              

                              

The brooding soldier at Vancouver Corner, the memorial to 2000 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the first gas attacks in 1915. 

                                                  

                                               

The war graves at Tyne Cot cemetary, the largest of the Commonwealth cemetaries, 12,000 soldiers are buried here and another 35,000 are listed on the memorial wall, soldiers with no known grave.

                              

The Australian 5th Division memorial at Polygon Wood.

                              

  

Menin Gate, the memorial to about 55,000 men who died during the Great War in unmarked graves.

Every evening at 8pm they have the Last Post Ceremony and we were grateful to be able to attend this very moving ceremony.

                               

The poem In Flanders Fields was written here by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Brigade Surgeon, 1st Canadian Field Artillery.