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WW1 battlefields - Ypres (Ieper) Belgium WW1 battlefields - Ypres (Ieper) Belgium
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Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 6 Aug 2008
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Ypres itself is quite a pretty town, it is walled, with a moat around part of it. During the summer there is a good camp site only about 5 minutes from the Menin Gate (where the last post is sounded) - which is incredibly moving.....(on school grounds outside the Menin Gate, about 500m south from memory)....plus a good range of B&B's and hotels.......it is actually quite flat around Ypres but other parts of Belgium further away from the coast are hilly (including the Ardennes) and very pretty.
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Old 6 Aug 2008
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Great Post
Thanks for the great post. We should never forgot those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can have so much.

Thank you.
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  #3  
Old 7 Aug 2008
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I always get choked up when visiting the war graves, its the scale of the losses that my grandfather's generation suffered in WWI. I think that every wannabe politician should spend a year tending those graves - that should give them sufficient time to reflect on their actions.

I have also visited a couple of small war graves (WWII) in Brittany with only (fortunately) two or three unknown soldiers buried in them - even sadder that no one knew who they were, but a tribute to the local people who still care for those graves.
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Old 7 Aug 2008
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Originally Posted by RogerM View Post
I always get choked up when visiting the war graves, its the scale of the losses that my grandfather's generation suffered in WWI. I think that every wannabe politician should spend a year tending those graves - that should give them sufficient time to reflect on their actions.

I have also visited a couple of small war graves (WWII) in Brittany with only (fortunately) two or three unknown soldiers buried in them - even sadder that no one knew who they were, but a tribute to the local people who still care for those graves.
As some of you know, I am a Brit now living in France. We have an old french farmhouse and part by chance and part by subsequent research I have learned this about previous inhabitants of our house.
On September 18th 1913, 17 year old Desiree came here as the new bride of Emile. On july 31 1914 their first (and only) son was born. Emile went off to war on August the 4th 1914. He returned on leave at the end of march 1918, and walked with his toddler son down the little internal farm lane. This is the only memory the son ever had of his father, who returned to active service after the weekend leave. Emile was killed on April the 18th at Kemmel hill and was buried there in a mass grave. Of the 5200 odd French soldiers who died there (many from gas) only 57 were identified. Emile Coulais was one of them.
The son, a pharmacist and member of the resistance was killed by the Germans in 1944.
Desiree never remarried.
Last edited by oldbmw; 7 Feb 2009 at 21:40. Reason: date corrected.
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Old 8 Aug 2008
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That's a fascinating story. very sad but very true of life for thousands of families back then. We just have no idea how lucky we are today. Since the foundation of the European Union we have enjoyed peace in Europe as never seen before in history. For all it's failings the EU insstitutions at least have this to their credit.
If you visit the Flanders Fields museum in Ypres, your entry ticket has a barcode on it. The idea is you can insert your ticket into various computer screens located arround the museum and your ticket is actually a story of a real person . As you go through the museum and enter your ticket you get more information about them and what happened to them during the war. At the last machine just before the exit you learn about their fate..... most were killed or never found. It's a harsh reminder about just how real it was.
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Old 8 Aug 2008
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Thumbs down Breendonk
If you would wish to do something for the on-going modern day problems of war, you could consider this:-


I am forwarding a petition on the No 10 website and wondered if you would sign it in support of a dedicated Military Hospital – see below.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Wounded



If you support this, would you be kind enough to pass it onto friends and family who might do the same. We have a time limit of 19th August to sign up to it.



Many thanks


Incidentally, Breendonk is a horrible place: I visited it a couple of times in the late 1990s. The last time I was there, I talked with a couple of old guys who had been imprisoned there (they must be dead by now, they were that old at the time of meeting) - their stories were not nice to hear. It is not a military cemetary, but a place where some fascist Belgiums, working for the occupying Nazi authorities, screened other Belgiums before passing them on through the chain back to Germany for slave labour, or worse. Screening included the use of torture to obtain information about others. There is also a place of execution and the inmates were forced to dig earth all day and simply move it around on starvation rations. Breendock was originally built as part of the Belgium extension of the French Maginot line of forts: obviously the defensive line did not work too well! The dug earth is the earth-fill ramparts to the fort - the inmates got about 2/3 of them dug out and wheel-barrowed a short distance away by the time that Belgium was liberated --- that's the short version of the story.
It is now a national museum on the lines of "never forget".


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Old 7 Feb 2009
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Originally Posted by Roodeberg View Post
During the summer there is a good camp site only about 5 minutes from the Menin Gate.
I stayed at a camp site in Ypres which was very close to the Menin Gate; presumably the same one.

It's at N50 50.785 E2 53.788

I agree with the opinions expressed here. Ypres is a very special place and shouldn't be missed if you're passing.

Stephan
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