Features - Ypres Salient 2016
Caterpillar Crater, Hill 60 - 24 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell
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This was our first trip to the Western Front. It is something that we have wanted to do for some time and so we decided that our first experience would be as part of a guided tour. We chose the Leger Holidays tour 'Flanders Fields - Britain's Bastion on the Western Front' as a starter.
Getting to Ieper (Ypres) and back from northern England was quite complicated and involved a series of minibus, coach and taxi connections, but once we were there it was a joy. The coach crew were very helpful and the coach was comfortable. Our guide was Sabine Declercq who works for Leger and is also a self-employed battlefield guide via her website Great War Pilgrimage Tours. We arrived on Friday evening at about 19:30, just enough time to drop our bags off and wander off into Ieper town to make the most of the remaining light. Our first stop was the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, the burial place of Private Nicholas Topping who was born at Much Hoole. I have visited a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at home - the Whalley (Queen Mary's Hospital) Cemetery - but nothing really prepares you for the scale of the cemeteries on the continent. This cemetery contains the remains of 2,613 men, 1,034 of whom are unidentified. It was also striking how well kept the cemeteries are and how beautiful they look. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintain an office in Ieper, employing administrators, gardeners and stone masons among others. In the words of Sir Frederick Kenyon, one of the Commissions original advisors, "There is no reason why cemeteries should be places of gloom". Our first full day with Sabine was spent looking at the ramparts of Ieper with an introduction to the Menin Gate. This huge structure is dedicated to the men of the Commonwealth who died and have no known grave. There are 44 local men named on the Menin Gate including Gilbert Whatley of Leyland and Peter Yates of Samlesbury. It truly is a magnificent structure and one that is a fitting tribute to the missing men. Later the same day, we were honoured to be included in the official Last Post Ceremony, during which we laid a wreath on behalf of the mayor of South Ribble, Cllr Linda Woollard. We then moved on to the In Flanders Fields museum housed in the wonderful Cloth Hall. It is worth remembering that Ieper was completely flattened by German bombardment during the war, and what we see today is the result of rebuilding. The museum tailors your experienced based upon a bracelet system. You wear the bracelet and then quickly log on to a computer system to register your details. Throughout the exhibitions there are 'portals' where you wave your bracelet over a hotspot - the exhibit will then be tailored to your age group and / or your nationality - a neat idea. We then went over to Saint George's Memorial Church. The church was built after the war and in memory of the 500,000 Commonwealth troops who had died during the three battles for the Ieper salient. We then moved on to the Hooge Crater Museum, a private museum housed in an old church across the road from Hooge Crater Cemetery. On 19 July 1915 British forces detonated a charge of 1,700 kilograms of explosives in a tunnel that had been driven by the special Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers. Immediately after the explosion the allies rushed the crater in order to consolidate their advance. It became known as the Hooge Crater. Our guide was kind enough to make a diversion to Cement House Cemetery near Langemark so that we could lay a cross at the grave of Private William Little on behalf of Stan Grosvenor M.A. of Leyland. We then took a look at the Harry Patch Memorial and the German Cemetery at Langemark. It is probably no surprise that the First World War does not occupy such a prominent place in the German national psyche as it does ours - there are obvious reasons for this, but slowly, year on year, there is a gathering interest. As there should be - 44,000 of that nations men lay buried here. We then moved on to look at Tyne Cot memorial and cemetery. There are 36 of our local men who have never been found and who are named on the memorial panels. Private William Herbert Hewitt is buried within the cemetery. In total, the memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, while the cemetery holds the remains of a further 11,961 Commonwealth servicemen, of which 8,373 are unidentified. Sobering figures. We also visited the Welsh memorial at Pilckem Ridge, the New Zealand memorial at Graventafel and the Scottish Memorial at Frezenberg along the way today. The second day began early at Hill 60 at Zillebeke, which is located around three miles south-east of Ieper. It is not a natural feature, but was made from the spoil removed during the construction of the railway line nearby. Because it was a small area of elevated land in a flat landscape, it obviously had strategic importance in the battles in the Salient. We saw Caterpillar Crater, created in 1917 by diggers from the Australian Tunneling Company. Once this was blown, the infantry stormed the hill and took it. The crater is 60 feet deep and 260 feet wide and the explosion cost the lives of 687 German soldiers. We moved on to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele near Zonnebeke. As well as traditional displays and exhibits, the museum has reconstructed dugouts and trenches. They explain what went on in dugouts and how they were constructed and also tell of the evolution of trench construction, from mere scrapes in the ground to complex defensive structures with drainage and shelter. In the afternoon, we moved along to Wijtschate and the Bayernwald German trenches. These trenches are a carefully restored section of an original German trench system dating from 1916. The reconstruction was carried out in the original trench section under archaeological conditions. Nearby is the Croonaert Chapel Cemetery and a few of us went to take a look. The cemetery is situate within farmers fields and entrance is gained through a grass path. There are 75 burials here, 7 of whom are unidentified. There were also 51 German graves here dating to 1917, but these were removed after the armistice. We then moved on to the Mesen (Messines) area. Spanbroekmolen or Lone Tree Crater is the site of the largest of 19 mines blown by the British Army in the early hours of the morning of 7 June 1917. This signalled the launch of the Battle of Messines. We then moved on to Mesen proper, taking in the Island of Ireland Peace Park - a wonderful place of reflection that was opened 11 November 1998 by Irish President Mary McAleese. I was struck in particular by this poem by Patrick MacGill of the London Irish Regiment: I wish the sea were not so wide
That parts me from my love; I wish the things men do below Were known to God above. I wish that I were back again In the glens of Donegal, They'll call me coward if I return But a hero if I fall. Patrick did his fighting in the Loos area of France. He was injured in 1916 and sent back to London. His book The Great Push was written in 1916 and gives a memorable first hand account of the fighting in the Loos sector. The prose was particularly resonant with me, considering my own Donegal heritage.
We visited Ploegsteert Memorial next. This proud memorial contains the names of 11,366 names of the missing, including 9 of our local men. This memorial is in the French speaking part of Belgium and it was originally planned to erect it in Lille. Many of the men upon it were killed in northern France. On the way back to Ieper, Sabine made another unscheduled stop at Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, where 11 of our local men lay. That evening, once our souvenir shopping was done and we had had a good meal, I left Oliver at the hotel while I had a walk around the ramparts. I called in at the Ypres Ramparts Cemetery. The evening sunshine bathed the cemetery in a golden glow and I took some time to rest in the last of its rays. I happened upon the graves of a number of Maori servicemen here and took some images of them. I sent them on to a Twitter friend of mine in New Zealand, Lainey, thinking they would be of interest. By coincidence, one of the men, Wataa Taukamo is her great uncle. His grave (and that of the other New Zealand men) is tended by a local man, Real Desmarets. He made a poppy and put a photograph on the grave. It was the perfect end to our visit. Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou We will remember them Grateful thanks to Sabine Declercq (the lady in the hat) who made the trip such a memorable one. And thanks to the staff at Leger and the lovely Belgian people we encountered along the way. |
Ieper, Menin Gate - 22 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell 
Oliver at the Menin Gate - 22 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell 
Cement House Cemetery
Oliver laying a cross for Private William Little - 23 July 2016 Image (C) Charles O'Donnell 
Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing - 23 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell 
The New Zealand Memorial at Graventafel - 23 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell 
Oliver with the South Ribble wreath at the Menin Gate - 23 July 2016
Image (C) Charles O'Donnell |
Charles O'Donnell and Oliver Hussey 2016