The Great War lasted four years, yet it killed over twenty million people, and wounded countless more. A year ago I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to the city of Ypres (Often spelt Ieper), and learn a great deal more about those who fell in what was one of the bloodiest conflicts in all time. I took most of these pictures myself, and the full sized versions can be seen by clicking the thumbnails. I dedicate this article to the memory of my Great Grandfather Blundle, while he survived the Great War; he experienced things no human should ever have to endure. May he rest in peace.
Ypres During the War
In an act of bravery befitting heroes, the Dutch army engineers had managed to slow the German advance by destroying some of the levees that kept the area country from being reclaimed by the sea. The result was the German forces had only one way to get into France: Through Ieper. The defenders grimly dug their trenches and prepared their weapons. They would not allow the Germans to pass without a fight.
And fight they did. Over the next four years, the defenders fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Great war, the infamous battleground of Flanders. Over the course of the war, Ypres changed hands three times.
It was first captured by the Allies in 1914 to prevent the German war machine marching across France. In 1915, the Germans mounted their counter attack with a terrifying new weapon. Although they had used it on the eastern front before, the Germans now turned their latest weapon on Ypres defenders- Chlorine Gas. Unprepared for the new weapon, the Allies where driven out, and forced to entrench themselves around the city again. The third battle of Ypres commenced in 1917, and was the bloodiest yet. Pushing into the city, the Allies paid a cost that was on the wrong side of half a million lives- for only few miles of terrain.
The worst part of all this? By now, Ypres itself had been all but destroyed by each side's attempt to destroy the other with heavy artillery. Soldiers fought and died over a piece of rubble. A strategically important piece of rubble, but rubble nevertheless.
Ypres Today
My journey began with the town of Ypres itself. Currently a thriving area of around thirty thousand people, it would be hard to picture Ypres as anything other than what it is today: a pleasant market town, filled with friendly people, and a hotspot for tourists. The marks of the war remain of course, the Menin gate (discussed later), a war museum, and a number of other landmarks that point to a violent past. Perhaps the most amazing thing though, is the fact that the city was there for me to wonder through at all. In 1919, the city was nothing but a smoking ruin, with practically no buildings standing.
Ypres had also seen the debut of not just one, but two new chemical weapons, Mustard gas had been deployed in the theatre of war surrounding the city in 1917. It's important to note that both sides, not just the Germans, used these chemical weapons. Today, Ypres and Hiroshima are leading centers for campaigns for nuclear and chemical disarmament. For obvious reasons.
The Menin Gate
The Menin Gate is a massive war memorial, dedicated to those allied troops who where never found and given a proper burial. Many where never given a proper grave as they where simply too disfigured to be identified. Many corpses where never recovered at all, atomized by shells or drowned in the mud.
It lists over 50,000 names, and they still did not have enough space to fit all the names on. The remainder are inscribed on a wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
The gate itself is situated over the main road in and out of the town. As you can see in the above picture, many people place memorials to dead relatives and friends here, if they know there is no grave to visit. It consists of a main tunnel area (Pictured above), and on each side of the tunnel is a "wing" (Pictured below). Linking the tunnels to the wings are two sets of stairs. Every wall on the inside of the Tunnel, on the stairs, and every wall on the wings contain names.
Each day at 20:00, all traffic through the gate stops and the local fire brigade's buglers sound the last post in memory of all those who gave their lives to keep the nation free. This has occurred every day without fail since 1927, except while the city was occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Leaving Ypres for the Flanders Battlefield
If you had a relative or friend in the Great War, then they almost certainly spent at least some time in Flanders. Likewise, I visited the war cemeteries, four of them along a single 4km stretch of road. In the first cemetery I visited, I noticed that the gravestones had a most unusual arrangement. Many where placed touching one another, and there where large gaps in the rows. There where also some stones placed down the side of the cemetery at a 90 degree angle to the others.
