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After setting off at 6.30 in the morning, we reached Ypres and our first stop at Hooge. En route, we viewed the city walls and the magic tap water feature before exploring the museum and reconstructed trenches. We particularly enjoyed looking at local, original World War 1 artefacts displayed in the extensive Hooge Museum, dug up from the fields surrounding us. Children saw rifles, uniforms, the barbed wire and wooden boards from trenches, medicine bottles, bayonets and artillery cases amongst many, many other original items.
We then made the short trip to Sanctuary Wood and the site of original British trenches. A local farmer preserved the site after reclaiming his land he had to leave in 1914 and, after clearing the trench networks of debris and ammunition, opened it to the public to walk in the footsteps of British soldiers. Here, we explored the communication trenches that would have connected the front line trenches and support trenches; we even went through the concrete tunnels that were constructed to provide soldiers with safety during aerial bombardment. Many craters caused by artillery fire can still be seen around the trenches.
After visiting the trenches, we commemorated the fallen at Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth War Graves site in the world. There are 11,871 individual gravestones here; 70% of them are for unknown soldiers whose bodies could not be identified. In addition, there are some 34,888 names documented on the surrounding walls at the back of the cemetery, commemorating the war dead whose bodies were either not found or could not be buried. This was a truly humbling experience.
It was here we located the memorial to a local Marden soldier, Edward Packham. Edward grew up on a farm in Marden. At the outbreak of war in 1914, Edward was too young to join the British Army and had to wait until 1917 to join, becoming a member of the Machine Gun Corps. He was posted to Belgium in the summer of 1917 and fought in the third battle of Ypres, known as Passchendaele, but was unfortunately killed on 25th October 1917. Edward's name can be found on the war memorial in Marden.
Following our visit to Tyne Cot, we visited Langemark, the German cemetery, to compare how the German fallen had been commemorated. The cemetery had a very different feel and the children felt it was dark and depressing in comparison to Tyne Cot. Our guide, Jon, explained how the German dead were buried very differently with multiple soldiers being buried together with a shared headstone that was placed on the ground. There were 44,000 soldiers buried at Langemark with 25,000 buried in one section in what looked like a form of burial pit. The Year 6 children were most surprised to learn that they had followed in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler, who had visited Langemark in 1940, and they stood where he had on his visit.
We were exceptionally lucky to squeeze in a trip to Essex Farm, another Commonwealth War Graves site. Having been told the story of Valentine Joe Strudwick during Jon's visit before our trip, we wanted to share his story once more and visit his grave in person. Joe is the youngest known buried British soldier, killed at the age of 15. We also saw and heard the story of Tom Barratt who was awarded the Victoria Cross - the highest British military award - for his gallantry in battle. This was also the site where John McCrae wrote the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields.' We saw the military medical facility he used to treat wounded soldiers and the fields that inspired him to write as he did.
We finished our tour with a visit into the centre of Ypres, stopping at the Menin Gate before visiting a chocolate shop across the road from the great Cloth Hall that had to be reconstructed after it was decimated by German artillery fire in World War 1.
The Menin Gate is a monument that commemorates fallen soldiers and acts as an entrance to the city. Here, 54,900 names of fallen soldiers are engraved on the walls. Every evening, at 8pm, hundreds of people stand and fall silent as the 'Last Post' is played by a volunteer from the local fire brigade to commemorate the dead. On Armistice Day, in the region of 30,000 people attend a commemorative service, lining the streets surrounding the Menin Gate to listen to the Last Post and pay their respects to the fallen.
This video was taken in 2017 at the Menin Gate. The video comes from the Royal British Legion and provides a 360 view of the commemorative service held there yearly. Whilst watching, drag the screen and look around at the stunning architecture dedicated to the soldiers whose graves are unknown.
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