As I mentioned in the earlier post, in 1914, the neutral Belgium began to be occupied by Germany to protect itself from France. Soon 95% of Belgium was under Germany. France understood the gravity of the situation and joined hands with Britain and brought their troops to Ypres - the city in Belgium upto which Germany had occupied, to help the Belgian army, effectively beginning an international war, called the Great War, which is now being called First World War. In Ypres alone 5 wars were fought.
Quite amusingly Ypres was never occupied by Germany. Ypres is surrounded by ridges and hills all around, in a shape of an arch / semi circle. A Salient in military terms is a portion of battlefield that protrudes into enemy territory. Ypres was projecting into German occupied Belgium and was protected by British, French and Canadian troops.Today a tour of the Salient line and visiting some memorials & cemeteries in Ypres is a typical way to explore Ypres. There are several tourist operators who organize the trips esp for one group with specific requests or multiple people together. I took the trip with Salient Tours and was guided by Mr.Lucas, a local, who began unofficially guiding at 11 yrs of age! Our first stop was Essex Farm Cemetery. Before entering the cemetery, we first headed to the Advanced Dressing Station just beside it called Site John McCrae. This has a series of several rooms. Each room has 6 slots which were meant for 6 beds. This was originally a basic medical station. But during the 2nd Ypres War, Germans' modus operandi was gas attack which resulted in making this a full fledged medical care station. It was here that John McCrae, a surgeon, wrote the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields', in which he writes about his observance of poppies blooming in the war shocked land! Its because of this poem that till date poppies are a symbol of war remembrance. The Essex Farm Cemetery has 1204 burials of which 104 are unidentified. Originally the tomb stones were made of limestone however the ones that get damaged are nowadays being replaced with marble which is stronger. Some of the burials are closely packed next to each other called 'shoulder to shoulder burials' which means they died together and their individual bodies are inseparable. Unidentified soldiers were mentioned as 'A Soldier of the Great War'. One of the most important burials here is of Valentine Strudwick who was just 15 yrs old when he died here! All the cemeteries have a cemetery register near the central memorial or near the gate. This has a list of the soldiers who have been buried here and the exact location of each burial. This is to facilitate people who are here in search of certain graves, like their own forefather's! Every cemetery also has a central memorial for the unknown soldiers for the kith & kin to pay their respect. This was designed by Rudyard Kipling (yes, the same man who wrote Jungle Book), after his son John Kipling died in the war and his body not retrieved (though now its identified).
Our next stop was Yorkshire Trench & Dugout. This has 3 patterns on the ground. One of the dugout, one trench of 1915 and another of 1917. One of the trenches is accessible today for visitors to walk through. The dugouts can be seen but cannot be accessed. Since the place had a high water level, the dugouts were constantly being filled up and had to be pumped out. Since being very close to enemy line the pumping couldn't be motorized to avoid noise. Also the dugouts have an inverted A shaped platform called A-Frames to keep the feet out of mud and are 10m below ground level. These trenches were made zigzag to reduce the impact of shockwaves. Our next stop was Langemark German cemetery. This has granite planks on the floor that mentions multiple names in each. This was the site of 10,143 soldiers. Later on in 1956-58, all the German graves from every other cemetery was transferred here and right at the centre is a communal grave of about 30000+ soldiers. Today this whole place has 44000+ German soldiers buried here. Next stop was The Brooding Soldier memorial for Canadian soldiers. The final stop was Tyne Cot War Graves Cemetery. This is the largest Commonwealth memorial of WWI. The central memorial is on top of 3 German pillboxes. It was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. Since it was pre-designed the bodies had to placed in pre-determined burials and the names were written in the headstones. Now, remember 'shoulder to shoulder burials'? In such cases, they were buried together and the head stone read '2 or 3 Soldiers of the Great War'. This has 11,965 burials of which 8,369 are unidentified. Enroute we also stopped at a gentleman's farm to understand what is Iron Harvest. The aftermath of the war has been the way of life for the people living there till date. The tractors of the farmers bring up bombs, grenades, rifles and even bodies!!! The people here know to spot what is dangerous and what isn't! They have codes to inform the authorities regarding what was found. Depending upon urgency its either cleared immediately or over the next collection. What sunk my heart was, in the midst of grenades and bullets was a shoe of a soldier with the soldier's toe intact, completely petrified, which was beyond shocking for me, but the locals were expression-less and its a part of their everyday life!!!
To Stay:
Hotels & B&Bs at all price points are available in Ypres City Centre.
To Get There:
To Ypres (Ieper) from Brussels: 130km (Direct trains are unavailable. Change of train at Gent has to be done. The whole journey takes 2-2:30hrs)
On Google Maps: Salient Tours
Tour rates begins from €40 per person inclusive of car and is about 3.5hrs long
My complete Ypres travelogue: coming soon.
P.S: I was invited by Ieper Tourism to experience the city and Salient Tours to experience their service for review purposes, however the opinions are my own and this post does not to advertise the product/service.
