In Flanders Fields

[svandamme]

I'm relatively new on this board, and i'm no veteran of any army.
but Namvet72 told me you guys might like this.

I was born and raised in Ypres, known in the middle ages for it's linnen trade, it was sort of a Wall Street of the Middle ages back then.

Now it's more famous for 14-18, the British, had decided to not give up the town of Ypres to the Germans, despite Ypres not having a particular strategic value.

And so it became one of the biggest battlefields known to mankind, the place where many died as they went over the top.



Ypres itself was never taken, despite the fact that the Germans had the higher ground.

Not much was left after the war, not of Ypres, not of the surrounding area.



Winston Churchil wanted the bombed out city center preserved as it was, as a living memorial. He said "Ypres is holy land to the British Empire".
But the original folks from Ypres, came back and figured they wanted their town restored.

I actually grew up in city center, and i never payed much attention to the bugles that played every day at 20h00 .

It's only when i left town, and lived in Holland for 6 years, that i started to realize the significance of the Last Post,
played, each night at 20h00 under thee Menin gate by volunteers of the Fire brigade.



It's a very moving ceremony , been going on since 1928, only interrupted briefly during WW2..
and while Hitler was keen to get even with the allies for the humiliation at Versailles,
even he came to visit the Menin Gate show some respect for those who died in the same war he fought in...




These days , the war is still omni-present and not just because of all the memorials and tourisme .
For instance, I bought a house in Boezinghe, 3 miles north of Ypres, near the canal.

even 90 years after the facts farmers plow up un-exploded shells every year it's not an exceptional thing..

6 in the picture, that's my street back then

Battle at Pilkem Ridge, 300-500 meter east of my house.



There's a dig just half a mile from my house where they dug up phosgene shells not to long ago...
http://www.mausershooters.org/digger...nch/welkom.htm

Even today remains are sometimes found and sometimes identified, some by name, some by regiment.






And the Great War still kills , even when hardly anybody alive was alive then.
Farmers dig up shells every time it's plowing season. They simply pick up the shell, and stack it up by the side of the field.
Our military has a department called DOVO, that still has a full day job collecting , disarming and disposing 90 year old unexploded ordnance.


Every now and then a farmer get's blown up, the last one a few years ago when he had not noticed an old shell when the was burning some waste..

There is even a small village, where they know there is a multiple tonnage undergrown mine , under the houses.
But nobody bothered to remove the explosives after WW1.. and now nobody dares.
One of those mines already blew up once, in 1955, no casualties but a cow.

To put it in perspective, these are not "mines" as you would ordinary think of, not a Claymore or an antitank mine.
These were bombs that they had placed under the enemy lines, by digging a tunnel , hundreds of meters under the lines.. then stuffing them with several tons of ammanol..



Nucking Futs really.. the lenghts both sides went to try and kill the other.
21 mines, each 20 or so tons of ammonal... 19 mines blew up killing 10 000 german soldiers... The deadliest , non nuclear detonation ever.


That's more south of Ypres, i'm north, even in my area it's pretty easy to find artifacts or old ammo...

random dig in a field
http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.n...10126a7100a0c9

So if i dig deep enough in my garden i'm pretty sure that something will come up..

Anyway, hope you like the stuff.. I'm no soldier, nor am i a historian, but in a way , war is a reality for me.
I would not dare to call it as real as for those who were in it but still , for us here in Flanders,
it's not a distant thing, despite the 90 years since the guns went silent In Flanders Fields, where the Poppies blow.

[skosh69]

Thank you for sharing the history of your town with us Yanks!!!

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by skosh69

Thank you for sharing the history of your town with us Yanks!!!

No thanks required, my pleasure.

[NAMVET72]

Very Nice and Very Well Written,

Thank You,

[jmlutz]

That was just surreal, I don't think people today could imagine how up close and personal the fighting is in any war. Mike

[Snipersnest]

Wow, that's incredible. On the same note, the farmers in Gettysburg still come across musket balls when they turn over their fields, and some trees that are cut down still have balls imbedded in them. Thanks for sharing!

[svandamme]

we don't have trees older then 90 years around here...in fact, we have nothing older then 90 years in this area. My house was built in 1923, it was one of the earlier houses in the area. Not the earliest, but still very early.


1914 first troops arrive, thinking they will be home for X-mas


City Square , different angle in 1918



Emergency Barracks errected right after the war, by 1925 they started tearing these down to replace em with real housing



Modern day City center, the house where i grew up would be just on the left of the picture.



There is actually one of the emergency houses from those days, that survived. It has been modified over the years, but now serves as some kind of hotel/studio for rent.



http://www.thuzetje.be/EN/default.htm

Not cheap though.

[Grouse]

fantastic history.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by m60g

Hey, you live in Ypres, that's where Paschendale was fought. I'm a big military history buff

Technically they called it the Battle of Passchendaele or the Third Battle of Ypres.
But the fighting was mostly away from Ypres, and took many months over a large area.



Boezinge is 3 miles North of Ypres, that's where the started off, the Battle of Pilkem Ridge (area where my house is) was part of the first phase (along with Battle of Messines and others),
then in the second phase they fought in the center of the front , Battle of Menin road and others, 3rd phase whwere the actual 3 Battles of Passchendale




The third Battle of Ypres was one of the first, real modern battles.
Where Airsupport, Tank support, Artillery support were coordinated for effect,
unlike the earlier parts of WW1 where it was basically a case of , everybody go over the top and run to the enemy.
Often ending up shelled by their own artillery if things weren't coordinated right.

The more modern tactics however did not mean they resulted in lesser casualties.
On the contrary, 3 months of fighting.. they estimate at least 240 000 casualties on each side.
That's 2500 men , per day
2 per second

They can't really set an exact number, they can only guestimate.. Many were buried by the shelling after they fell.

[m60g]

Do you all still find a lot of artifacts. Must get kind of scary digging and plowing with all the ordnance that was thrown each way.