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FLANDERS FIELDS IN "THE GREAT WAR"
WWI Monuments and Museums of Belgium

“In Flanders Fields” became known in the years following World War I to mean the hundreds of thousands of dead left behind in the grassy plains of central west Westhoek region of Belgium known to soldiers of England as Flanders from 1914 to 1918. The poppies which grow easily in the fields have come to be recognized as symbols of the sacrifice of soldiers. It was here that the world first discovered the utter brutality and ultimate futility of trench warfare with the most deadly battles of World War I. Up to half a million men would die in a battle to gain less than 2 miles of ground under heavy shelling and futile charges on entrenched positions. For war buffs and history tourists the area is dotted with a number of war memorials, monuments and museums, from haunting statues to cemeteries for English, French, Canadian, Austraian, French and German dead, and trenches that have remained as they were.

The “War and Peace” project in Westhoek Belgium has been trying together the war sites for ease of touring and visiting with routes that can be followed by foot, car, or bicycle. The In Flanders Fields Route with some of the most important cemeteries and moments of the WWI battlefields begins and ends in the town of Ypres (Ieper) and covers about 82 kilometers (50 miles).

Ypres was known for manufacturing cloth in the middle ages and had long been fought over between the French and English. But in 1914 German forces rolled across the plains in the first years of the war. The English commonwealth came to defend. Ypres was almost completely reduced to stubby stone rubble by artillery, almost unbelievable to visit today as much of it has been rebuilt to a beautiful grand town. The In Flanders Fields Museum shows original films of the devastated town and the battle fields of “no-mans land” of the Ypres Salient, along with letters and displays evoking the time. A special card allows visitors to follow the stories of individual real people. In connection with the museum, the Yorkshire Trench, an original dugout intended to defend the city has been restored by archeologist to its wartime state, to experience what the trenches were like. A series of information plaques give visitors a representation of the trench warfare experience. The Essex Farm Cemetery is located near the Canal Bank where the guns of the 1st Canadian Artillery Brigade were placed in 1915, and from where John MaCrae wrote a poem “In Flanders Fields” which came to signify the bloody futility of the war, even as it had 3 years left to go. The Documentation Center holds 6,000 books, topographic maps, photos, newspapers and magazines about WWI. The exploration route takes you past the German Military Cemetery at Langemark, the Canadian Memorial in Sint-Juliaan, Hill 62 and Kemmel Hill. Back in Ypres, the Menin Gate is the most well known monument for the British Commonwealth in Flanders. It bears the names of over 50,000 soldiers reported missing in the war. Every evening at 8pm a ceremony called “The Last Post” is held at the stone arch when traffic stops and buglers play a memorial salute.

The Yzer Front Route leads through the polder lands between the towns of Nieuwport and Diksmuide. The “Trench of Death” and “Our Lady’s Corner” along the Yzer River are places to find war relics and another restored trench museum memorial. The “Town Link” is a series of buttons in the sidewalks marking sites through the town of Diksmuide with tales and images of the town destruction and rebuilding. The King Albert I Monument is at the junctions of the canals in Nieuwpoort.

Other towns to visit are Mesen where the Irish Peace Park and Peace Tower, honoring Irish dead, the Messines Ridge Memorial at the British Cemetary, the New Zealand Memorial commemorating New Zealand and Australian soldiers and a small history Museum in town and a youth hostel at the Peace School. Poperinge, nicknamed “pops” in the war has the Talbot House where a popular club fvor soldiers was established vy Reverand “Tubby” Clayton. The club was enjoyed by over a half million soldiers between 1915 and 1918. The upstairs chapel remains as it was. You can actually stay in the Talbot House for some authentic experience. At the town hall is the Death Cell where condemned deserters were held before being shot at dawn at the execution pole in the courtyard. I imagine it was preferable to spend the night at the Talbot House than in the death cell. In Zonnebeke is the Memorial Museum of Passchendaele (remembered for the gruesome battle of “Passiondale”). The museum located in the ground of the town castle has a walk-through German trench and a British dug-out headquarters and displays of uniforms and other historical objects and dioramas. The Tyne Cot Cemetary in the Passchendale is the largest burial ground of British Commonwealth soldiers in the world.

The only American cemetery in Belgium from WWI is located in Waregem, 25 miles from Ypres. America came into the “war to end all wars” in 1918 for the last offensives. The Flanders Field American Cemetery at Waregam is the smallest in Europe . But it wasn’t only allied solders who spilled blood in Flanders Fields, there are a number of German cemeteries as well, usually much more stark and forlorn than the ultimate “victors”, though its hard to say that anyone actually “won” this war.

Other cemetaries see Belgium Ardennes WWII Sites - in France The Somme and Belleu Wood-Marne.

It is possible to find the location of the war dead on the web. For Great Britain and Commonwealth soldiers in all wars www.cwgc.org for German soldiers www.volksbund.de for Belgian and French war dead and the Flanders Fields Museum and American War Cemetaries www.abmc.gov. © Bargain Travel Europe

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These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission. Photos Courtesy Westhoek Tourism

SEE ALSO:

EUROSTAR LONDON / PARIS

FORBIDDEN MONTE-CARLO
Napoleon Memorabilia Museum

A SAINT, A CHANTEUSE AND AN EMPEROR
Chatillon-Sur-Seine, Burgundy

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