Remnants Of The Great War by wastl001
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Description
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(by John McCrae, May 1915)
A very sad story in 'human' history.....
Because of the history lessons of my youngest daughter we visisted Tyne Cot Cemetery in Passendale, Belgium, today. Passendale is very close to the city of Ieper / Ypres which is well known for it's Battle of Ypres. In fact there were 3 battles between October 1914 and November 1917. In these 3 battles more than 800.000 (!!!) soldiers died. Not very 'human' at all I think....
The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war.
The name "Tyne Cot" is said to come from the Northumberland Fusiliers seeing a resemblance between the German concrete pill boxes, which still stand in the middle of the cemetery, and typical Tyneside workers' cottages - Tyne Cots.
12.000 Allied soldiers are burried here, from which 70% the names are 'known unto God' (unidentified).
Impressive numbers, impressive place!
I think my daughter's history-teacher did very, very well to tell about this blackest of pages in human history. In this way young people will now there's more on this world than joy and fun...
Paul.
Comments (5)
MrsLubner
My grandmother's baby brother was killed during the war and buried here. She never got over it and we never spoke of it. Thank you for this view.
CavalierLady
A beautiful place to honor the brave fallen, so neat and the flowers on the individual graves is very nice, so different from our 'Arlington Cemetery' and you have captured it so nicely.
artaddict2
Thanks for sharing this. great photo and information - My Grandfather fought in the Great War and the story MY father told was that the High ranking Officers asked for volunteers for a difficult mission which would be important to the outcome. My Grandfather was one who volunteered, he was a Heavy Machine Gunner. He survived, living until the age of 76. The unfortunate ones who thought maybe they would have a greater chance were sadly posted HERE. My Grandad never spoke about his days in both wars.
RodolfoCiminelli
Impressive photo.......!!!
Cosine
That's amazing, Paul. I had never heard those numbers. Thank you for sharing.