Flanders Fields 2 - Pool of Peace, Hill 60 and Polygon Wood

We also visited a place known as the Pool of Peace but which is more correctly the Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater.

It is the largest of the 19 craters left behind after the British mine attack which started the Battle of Messines on the 7th of June 1917. Because of the height of the water table, the crater has filled with water over time and it's now a place of reflection rather than an ugly remnant of the war.  The pool is about 12 metres deep and nearly 130 metres in diameter.

Another stop was Hill 60 and the site of the memorial to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, which is located about 5 kms from Ypres. As you can see from the photo, today it's a place for sheep to roam about in.

Hill 60 was the site of some pretty intensive fighting between the German and British armies between 1915 and 1918. The site is effectively a mass grave for all soldiers who perished below the ground. In November 1916, the Australians took over the mines and tunnels which the British had commenced at Hill 60. The Australians named their shafts and tunnels after Australian cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart and Newcastle.  The movie Beneath Hill 60 showed what the Australian Tunnelling Company achieved here.

The inscription on the memorial says - 'In Memoriam of Officers and Men of the 1st Australian Tunneling Coy who gave their lives in the mining and defensive operations of Hill 60 1915-1918.' The bullet holes in the memorial (which you can see in the photo above) are a consequence of World War II.

This is Polygon Wood. The Battle for Polygon Wood which involved Australia's 5th Division, took place on 26 September 1917.  The wood while completed destroyed, was replanted after the war. Despite this, evidence of the war is still obvious including this concealed German machine gun bunker (see below).

In fact, evidence of the war is everywhere. Farmers continue to find artillery shells, bullets and weapons when plowing their fields. Many shellls are unexploded and pose a serious risk to life and property. We stopped off at a site along the way and this is some of what one farmer had found on his land.  It is estimated that about 100 tons of ordnance are found each year in Belgium.  Each week a specialist army team collect and detonate what has been found.

This is the Butte Cemetery which is located next to Polygon Wood. 

Most of the soldiers buried here died in 1917 but the cemetery wasn't established until after the Armistice. Consequently only about 400 of the burials have been identified and most of the graves are marked as 'A soldier of the Great War - Known Unto God'. Prior to the war, the site used to be a drill ground for the Belgium Army and this inspired the layout of the cemetery with the headstones all facing inwards.

Flanders Fields 1 - Langemark, Tyne Cot Cemetery and Passchendaele

We based ourselves in Bruges so we could easily do a World War I tour of Flanders Fields. Our tour guide Nathan picked us up around 8.30am and during the drive provided heaps of information about the events leading up to the outbreak of the war.

Our first stop was the German War Cemetery at Langemark. Although cemeteries are sombre places, there was a great feeling of desolation about this place. There were no individual headstones, and most markers were inscribed with several names. A mass grave near the entrance to the cemetery contains nearly 25,000 soldiers, of whom almost 8,000 remain unknown. Oak panels in the entrance vestibule record the names of those known to be buried in the cemetery but are in unidentified graves.

These four bronze figures stand watch over the cemetery. They were inspired by a photograph taken in 1918 of a group of German soldiers standing at the grave of a comrade. There are just four German war cemeteries in all of Flanders and they are located away from the major roads - apparently, a condition of the Armistice.

After Langemark we travelled about 2 kms to the site of the Brooding Soldier, a memorial to the 18,000 Canadian soldiers who suffered in a gas attack in 1915. The memorial is about 11 metres high and is quite breathtaking.

Our next stop was Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest of the British war cemeteries near Passchendaele. There are almost 12,000 burials in the cemetery of which just over 8,000 are unnamed and almost1500 are Australian. Most of these soldiers fell during the 1917 Battles for Passchendaele and Ypres. On 9 July this year three South African soldiers were buried at Tyne Cot after their remains were found near Zonnebeke a few kilometres away.

As you can see from the photos the contrast between Langemark and Tyne Cot cemeteries couldn't be more stark. Although Tyne Cot was a very sad place, it was also very peaceful and serene.

At the cemetery we found the grave of Private Frederick James Albert from 36 Battalion who died at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. Information about his death was provided by Grandfie Dwyer after he went missing. The day of our tour we left a couple of Australian mementoes on his grave. When we went back a few days later we found some school kids had also left poppies and a card. The Commonwealth War Cemetries are meticulously maintained. The original white concrete headstones are in the process of being replaced so that they better withstand the weather. The new marble headstones are quite beautiful.

Tyne Cot cemetery actually sits on Passchendaele Ridge. It is the only piece of high ground for miles which is why the Germans and Australians were so keen to control it. There is a museum attached to the cemetery which provides information about the Battle for Passchendaele and the capture by an Australian Division of a German blockhouse that stood on the site. Grandfie Dwyer was part of that Division.

As you approach the museum a recording of the names and ages of all the soldiers memorialised at Tyne Cot is broadcast. Once inside the museum, photos matched to those names can be viewed on a video screen.  What is striking about the photos is how young all the faces are.

This photo illustrates the intensity of the fighting on Passchendaele Ridge.  In the left of the photo is the corner of the German blockhouse which the Australians captured.  The Cross of Rememberance in Tyne Cot cemetery is mounted on that blockhouse.

Bruges

After two days in Calais, we packed up the car and headed north to Bruges, in Belgium. Amongst other things, Belgium is famous for its beer and chocolate! It has over four hundred breweries and it's only about half the size of Tasmania!

Bruges itself is a beautiful city, with lots of canals and lovely old (really old) Flemish buildings. We stayed in a lovely apartment about a 5 minute walk along the canals to the city centre. This was the canal at the end of our street.

It is very easy to get around Bruges. Lots of people ride bicycles but we just walked! The streets are very narrow and parking (if you can find a spot) is very expensive.  These are some photos of the canals around the city centre.

The main square is called the Markt. It is mostly made up of restaurants and souvenir shops but there is also quite a large museum and the famous Belfry. One morning a week they hold an open market which sells cheese, ham, fruit and vegetables, more cheese and more ham!  There are no stalls as such - vendors turn up in their fully decked out semi-trailers and park them in the Markt!

We found this stylised image of the Belfry, done in royal icing on gingerbread, in the window of a patisserie located on the Markt.

The Burg Square is just behind the Markt and here you can find the City Hall.

There are several noteworthy churches in Bruges. Just down from the City Hall is the Bascilica of the Holy Blood. This church houses a relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected from Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea and brought to Flanders from the Holy Land by a Crusader.  The interior of the church is very beautiful but unfortunately no photography was permitted inside the basillica so you'll need to look it up.

The next church we visited was the Church of Our Lady, which is said to have the only sculpture outside of Italy by Michelangelo. Unfortunately, the church was being renovated so the sculpture of the Madonna and Child was covered by scaffolding and we didn't get to see it.

However, we found these amazing sculptures and headstones in a courtyard just outside the church.

On another tangent, we found this fantastic but very small patissierie and bought one of these amazing apple pies. The pastry chef used to work in a two Michelin star restaurant - and as well as being supremely talented, he was great fun to talk to! Look up Patisserie Academie!

Our final bit of Bruges culture came from the free harp concert by Luc Vanlaere we attended at the Oud St Jan Hospital.

Make sure to put Bruges on your 'must see' places to visit!

Lille and Calais

From London we caught the Eurostar to Lille in northern France.  We stayed just one night but enjoyed our short time there.

We found this World War I commemorative plaque in a church near our hotel. Later on we realised that these plaques are in every church all over northern France.

We had some dinner in a Belgian Beer Bar just down from this pedestrian town square in Lille. The lighting at night was really beautiful.

The next day we picked up a car and drove to Calais - very scary I know, especially when you're driving on the wrong side of the road!

Calais is a coastal city and a major ferry port. On a good day you can see the English Cliffs of Dover from Calais. This photo shows the famous sculpture by Rodin of the Burghers of Calais. The sculpture is outside the Town Hall and symbolises the six men who offered themselves to the English King in 1347 to stop him from killing the citizens of Calais.

This is a view of the city from the Bell Tower attached to the Town Hall. In the centre of the roundabout you can just make out a beautifully manicured topiary peacock, which is the symbol of Calais.

Calais is also famous for lace making and we did a really interesting tour of the lace museum. The best fun we had was superimposing our faces onto photos of models wearing lace outfits from different periods in history.

The following day we did a drive down the coast to Boulogne-sur-Mer which is about 30 kms away. It was blowing an absolute gale but here is some of what we saw.

These are two ferries we spotted just near the ferry terminal at Calais - one is arriving, the other is leaving.  We counted about six ferries in the stretch of water between Calais and Dover.

Here are the white Cliffs of Dover! I think the distance across the channel is less than 30 kms.

The area around Calais was subject to some pretty intense fighting in World War II. These craters are the result of artillery fire from across the English Channel as there were several German gun emplacements along the French coast.

We also drove through the little village of Wimereux which is a place mentioned in Grandfie Dwyer's service record. It has a small port and would have been a landing point for hospital ships. John McCrae, who wrote In Flanders Fields, is buried in the war cemetery at Wimereux.  He died in 1918 of pneumonia, while still in command of the 3rd Canadian General Hospital.

Boulogne-sur-Mer used to be a major port before being superseded by Calais, so while the city is quite big, the port is a bit of a ghost town. Boulogne-sur-Mer is also a place mentioned in Grandfie Dwyer's service record and would likely have been a destination for troop ships travelling from England. Like many towns in Northern France the city was completely destroyed during World War I and none of the buildings pre-date 1920.