Passchendaele

[Wafflingwell]

Anyone else touched by the fact that every evening since 1928, the Belgian town of Ypres have, off their own bat (ie not a state or army undertaking) paid tribute to the fallen men of the British Army and its then Empire who died at Passchendaele?

I've just been watching the BBC coverage. Some shocking statistics - did I hear this right - that of all the British men (and soldiers from all over the French, Belgian and British empire such as Nepal, India, Morroco to name but a few) who died in the first world war, one quarter of them died at Ypres

[specialsubject]

I've yet to visit the cemeteries but oh, the size of them. Even on tv it is heartbreaking.

Regarding the iwm project - sadly if there's been mistakes in the catalogue they won't correct it, all emails or tweets are ignored. I've been unlucky and found that three of the soldiers I have been researching have corrupted database entries so I can't add info. I think there's no funding to sort it out.

If this happens to you ( or if not) findagrave is a good alternative and much easier to use. Many of the war dead already have entries on it.

[Wafflingwell]

Thanks for all the latest posts. There are some really interesting contributions on here

That is a shame about the corrections Specialsubject. One would have thought accuracy would be a priority.

PerspicaciaTick that is incredible about your great-grandmother's youngest brother! And discovering that information during the centenary commemoration! That is just one reason why these events are so important I think.

Funnily enough AmIthatbloodycold I was just reading about the contribution of women troops in the 1stWW

www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/women_combatants_01.shtml

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11003124/WW1-centenary-How-female-Tommies-and-sexism-helped-save-Britain.html

And this about common World War 1 myths is worth looking at

www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25776836

I love the cloth hall Histinyhandisfrozen I think they said it is the largest surviving (albeit heavily restored) medieval secular building in Europe.

Interesting about the lack of resources in the aftermath Matey not much has changed there I fear.

Shoes MissBehiving Agree with everyone else, looking at the pictures of Tyne Cot on the news yesterday, the scale and enormity of those graveyards are overwhelming. So horribly sad.

And hear hear Tressilian about thinking of those enduring conflicts today.

[DagenhamRoundhouse]

I sat and sobbed through most of this. Not sure how Kate could stand all that grief.

[yoyoyoy]

My grandfather fought there in the Royal Horse Artillery . I remember him as a quiet unassuming man who never talked about what he had seen and experienced ,in common with most of the survivors . He was deaf for the rest of his life ,presumably as a result of the shelling and the shrapnel still in his head .I have put his photo on my mantelpiece to honour his memory.I have visited Ypres twice ,it is a pretty little town ,well worth a visit and the surrounding cemeteries are awe inspiring ,very touching and beautifully kept .Two years ago we were at the Menin Gate for the last post on 11 November ,an extraordinarily moving occasion and one I shall remember forever

[summerfruitsquash]

The Menin gate is so incredibly sad. The sheer number of names is just overwhelming. I remember shedding a tear or two during the last post ceremony.




As a pp said, it's very quick and easy to get to Ypres. We sailed to Dunkirk and it was only about a 90.minute drive from there.




We also visited a few cemeteries. I haven't had any relatives who died in this war (they were lucky, being either too old or far too young) but I still find it so heart breaking to see the scale of loss.




Also worth a visit is Sanctuary Wood. It's a preserved part of a British trench system uncovered by a local farmer shortly after the war ended. It's so moving to be able to experience (especially when you visit on a wet day). The land around is pockmarked with shell craters too. It must have been horrific.

[TheVoiceofDoom]

My great grandfather is buried there. He was 37 and left 5 children, the oldest of which was my grandad. My grandad was close to him, I was close to my grandad so it feels quite close to me despite the 100 year gap. I have a letter he sent to my grandad which is very sweet and loving. I have some of his things and photos of him. He's the absolute spitting image of my brother.

[FadedRed]

We've been to the battlefields of northern France and Belgium many times, and it is well worth going to see some of them at least once. The memorials and cemetaries are beautifully kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and see places of peace and tranquility, but very, very sad. The museums, especially Ypres and the WW2 Normandy landings museum at Arromanches, are excellent, Albert is also worth a visit.
My great uncle was killed on the Somme, on the first day, he was eighteen years old and had fought since the start of the war, joining up at sixteen, so officially too young to have been there.
The CWGC website is worth a look, try searching your family's surnames, many people will find a relative they didn't know existed.

[Wafflingwell]

100 years doesn't seem very long ago at all does it when posters mention grandfathers, great grandfather and great uncles.

Thank you for Sanctuary Wood and CWGC website tips.

I sobbed too Dagenham

[histinyhandsarefrozen]

For those inspired to visit, we stayed with 2dc in appt. huis vandermersch, right in Ypres centre (and above a cake/furniture shop.)
I'm quite evangelical about it (sorry!) but it really is special to go there.

[MarciaBlaine]

It's definitely worth doing a tour if you can manage it - we learnt so much. You can do it yourself with a guide book. Many of them give suggested routes. Ypres is all the more amazing when you consider it was nearly obliterated. As I recall Winston Churchill played a hand in organising the rebuilding. The In Flanders Field museum is amazing - there are upsetting parts but they have shielded them off so if you have small kids you can avoid.

[Wafflingwell]

I'm making notes!

[histinyhandsarefrozen]

I think Churchill felt Ypres should remain in ruins as a monument to the terrible time, it was the local people who pressed to rebuild it as it was.

[FadedRed]

There is a good campsite less than ten minutes walk from the Menin Gate and Ypres main square with the FF museum is only a couple of minutes further on from the Menin Gate. The walk from the campsite goes past the sports hall and then along the canal to the Menin Gate. So if you are into camping, it could make a trip relatively inexpensive.

[Rainbunny]

I visited Ypres on a school trip many, many years ago. I still vividly remember watching a ceremony at the Menin Gate with two surviving soldiers who fought at Passchendaele, one was British and the other was French and it was incredibly emotional to see these old soldiers embrace with tears running down their cheeks, which led to my fellow students and I (a bunch of self-involved fourteen year olds) to have tears running down our cheeks as well - the male students as well.

I will take my dc there one day, I think it's a pilgrimage as many people as possible should make make.

[Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I would just like to add another place worrh visiting, www.visitflanders.com/en/things-to-do/attractions/top/trench-of-death-diksmuide.jsp

A preserved part of the Belgian trenches, with a small museum. We stopped there while driving to Brugges, well worth the detour.

[PerspicaciaTick]

I recently visited the newly opened WW1 airfield at Stowe Maries in Essex, which opened my eyes to some aspect of WW1 that I knew next to nothing about.
www.stowmaries.org.uk/

It is worth visiting as it a very calm beautiful piece of countryside, from which brave young men during the earliest days of flight took off and never returned. The sense of small planes heading off into the wide blue sky is palpable. Some of the individual stories are heartbreaking and there is also a small museum which talks about the civilian impact of WW1 bombing raids on London - which I hadn't even realised happened during WW1 - especially a school which received a direct hit with the bomb travelling through the whole building from the attic and finally detonating in the nursery class in the basement.

[clumber]

Histinyhands. ....you're right about Huis Vandermersch. We loved it. Lovely owners.
Hope it doesn't get all booked up!

[Wafflingwell]

Thank you for more interesting tips and experiences. I am still taking notes and plan to visit next year.

Rainbunny with such doom and gloom in the news, your story about the fourteen year olds gives one hope!

Perspicacia I visited Stowes Maries and had exactly the same reaction.

[TheFrendo]

I have just got back from Ypres. I went with two of my children to be there on the centenary and stand in front of the grave of relative Tom Denton Hepworth who died on 31st July 1917. He was too young to have married, he is my great-great uncle.

He was gassed in Ypres in 1915, moved to the Somme in 1916, then back to Ypres where he was killed during the assault on Pilkem Ridge.

The cemeteries are perfect, understated and redolent with emotion.

Sanctuary Wood, Hooge Crater and Potijze Chateau Grounds are ones that mean most to me.

Hill 60 is worth a visit. It is free and un-restored.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hill_60_(Western_Front)

[FadedRed]

I 've just finished a little journal called 'A Stretcher Bearer's Diary' by J H Newton. Downloaded on my Kindle for a couple of quid. It's a short book, only 79 pages and is transcribed from a series of notebooks written during the war by a soldier who was wounded in 1916 and declared unfit for fighting so reassigned as a stretcher bearer for the final two years. It's no great work of literature, but very powerful nonetheless, in the brief descriptions of the appalling conditions that were just endured because there was no choice. Simple sentences like " I have not had a wash for a fortnight, at least, only when the rain has washed me'.
Unimaginable.

[Wafflingwell]

How sad about your great uncle Frendo, what he must have endured.

Noted about Hill60 thank you and the diary Fadedred which I will definitely seek out.

[Wafflingwell]

Sorry, I don't know how I make aged to embolden Hill 60 there!

[Wafflingwell]

Managed to! Apologies!

[UtahGirl12]

We have visited the Menin Gate several times as a family to watch the service, it is incredibly moving. The whole area is incredible to visit; it really brings home the scale of the sheer numbers of lives lost. Both my sons have taken part in the ceremony as Army Cadets, and my oldest son has marched through there as a serving soldier, which makes me very proud. I really encourage people to visit to learn more about this important period in our history and the sacrifice made by so many. The town of Ypres is charming and the WW1 museum is excellent. Tyne Cot cemetery is so peaceful and well maintained and laid out, as are all the war cemeteries.

My late gran's youngest brother lost his life out there and has no know grave; his name is on a memorial. My gran always told the story of how she got up one morning to find her mother had laid an extra place at the breakfast table for her son Clifford, as he had "come back to visit her" in the night and she had made him a cup of tea. the next day she received the telegram to say he was missing. A little while later a German soldier posted his effects back to my Grans Mum, which he had found in Cliff's pocket, and asked her in broken English in a letter not to say he had done it as he would get into trouble. My Gran's Mum refused to believe Cliff was dead, as she said someone else was wearing his coat, as he was the sort of boy who would take his coat off to put on someone injured or cold. She waited the rest of her life for him to return.