One Day In The Area Close to Ypres
Brandhoek Cemetery is the place where Captain Noel Chavasse was laid to rest. Captain Chavasse is one of just three men to have been granted Britain’s top medal for bravery, the Victoria Cross. In addition, he was also accorded the Military Cross. I’m presently reading a book entitled “In Foreign Fields” by Dan Collins and it is about troops who have been granted medals in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you realise exactly what a soldier needed to achieve in order to be accorded an MC, it truly makes you comprehend what a bold man Capt Chavasse was especially as he was a member of the Royal Medical Corps and never fired a shot during the war.
My next stop was near to the village of Passchendaele at the biggest British Military Cemetery at Tynecot. About 12,000 soldiers lie buried here. From Tynecot, you’re able to see for several miles everywhere across fields and it seems difficult to think about the horror that had been there 90 years ago. The visitors centre provides a historical past of the vicinity and the names of a number of the fallen and missing are sent out restfully over audio speakers.
From Tynecot, I started to head back on the way to Ypres stopping at Hill 61 (Sanctuary Wood) en route. There is a modest museum and a few preserved trenches . In the course of my visit, the weather conditions wasn’t kind and while it had been nothing like as terrible as conditions would have been for the duration of World War I, the bottom of the trenches still looked pretty horrible. It cost a couple of Euros to get in and this was the initial spot I really started to discover the effects of the notorious mud.
My next supposed stop was the Hooge Crater. As previously in the day, I had a hard time trying to find it but I saw a modest independent museum called the Hooge Crater Museum which had a fascinating assortment of artefacts such as a British Ambulance and a Victoria Cross. My sightseeing for the day was not over as I still had to check out the well known Cloth Hall that was almost ruined (since fully rebuilt) as well as the Last Post ceremony and that is carried out at 8pm each and every night at the Menin Gate. I always find the Last Post really haunting and moving to hear. Soon after it was finished, 2 wreaths were placed by young British troopers and was followed by a recital from Laurence Binyon’s “For The Fallen”
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
The focus of most visits to Ypres is the Last Post at the Menin Gate every evening at 8pm.