In Flanders Fields . . .
As I write this, Queen Victoria is sailing south from the seaport of Zeebrugge, Belgium, en route to a Monday morning docking in Southampton, England.
Quite a sight at dinner: no less than 23 tankers and container ships riding at anchor off the coast, presumably waiting for a Monday visit to Rotterdam – the most commercial traffic I’ve seen in one location, including the Panama Canal.
Today’s excursion – the final stop on this 12-day voyage – was the Ypres Salient (pronounced “eep-ers” by the local Flemish; “Wipers” by the British troops), the scene of four years of horrific combat from the beginning to the end of the First World War.
You might know this by another name – “Flanders Fields” – and the poem written by John McCrae, who was serving with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in May 1915:
“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row . . .
About those crosses: our first stop was the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the final resting place for some 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers – nearly two-thirds of whom were never identified (for each, a simple two-line inscription: “A Soldier . . . The Great War”).
Originally, “Tyne Cot” was a bunker on the German Flandern 1 line. On October 4, 1917, Australian soldiers captured the position and used it as an advance dressing station. Soldiers who died there were buried on site. Before long, a cemetery composed of 300 graves had arisen – British “exhumation companies” adding the dead from surrounding battlefields over the course of the next decade.
At Tyne Cot, the crosses are uniform in size and design: in death, every serviceman is remembered the same regardless of rank or heritage. The only variable: for those soldiers identified, grieving families were afforded the opportunity to leave a personal inscription at the bottom of the marker.
Drive into downtown Ypres and you see something remarkable – a medieval town reduced to rubble, then rebuilt to its original splendor following the Armistice.
Winston Churchill, who led a brigade in the Salient during the Ypres campaigns, spearheaded an effort after the war to buy the town from the Belgians and keep it in its ruined version, as a reminder of Britain’s sacrifice.
That plan was nixed, but what does occur every evening is a “Last Post” ceremony at the town’s Menin Gate memorial to salute the fallen – a call to attention, a short prayer, an exhortation from Binyon’s “For the Fallen”, a wreath-laying, reveille and, finally, the playing of national anthems.
This, for fighting that occurred nearly a century ago – but for some, still a very personal experience (an Australian gentleman on our tour lost two great uncles in the Salient; another shipmate told me he too lost an uncle at Ypres, and carries with him a gold sovereign that the soldier crossed the Channel to meet his fate).
And that leads me to this question: at Ypres and other battlefield sites across Europe, preparations are underway for the 100th anniversary of “the war to end all wars”. That occurs three summers from now.
America, meanwhile, has another three decades until the Pearl Harbor centennial.
By that time, will our nation remember its fallen from both that day of “infamy” and the subsequent war with the same honor and dignity that these European nations presently devote to the ghosts of the Great War? Or is our experience different from what they endured?
- Comment (15)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
Comments :
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
The answer is yes, if we have anything to do with it. We will remember.
Fantastic post, Bill. Thank you for taking us to Tyne Cot and Ypres with you.
Jun '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
We will remember. Warriors are brothers under the skin, no matter the war, we will always remember our comrades who've gone before us, and those who will come after us.
May '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Wow. Thanks for the lesson and glimpse into something actually good about Europe!
May '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
When my boys' prep school went on their annual trip to France, every other year they would visit one of the major cemeteries, and search the lists of the dead until they found those who had attended their school, whose names they could read on the memorial at home. It brought home the personal connection.
The remembrance book at their later school is tragic reading. First Lieutenant after First Lieutenant, punctuated by Captains, Majors, and the odd General. Endless loss.
But even that is less than the impact of the war memorials in the French villages we are currently visiting. The loss of 20 or 30 young men in each of these tiny villages of a couple of hundred people must have been devastating. Whole communities gave up because there no young men returned to tend the fields - those who survived had moved to the cities. One of the signs of Churchill's greatness was his understanding of what France had suffered during 1914-18.
Feb '11
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
The French military academy at St-Cyr had a wall with the names of the members of each graduating class who had been killed in France's wars. For the class of 1914, the entry was very short: it said, simply, "The class of 1914."
One of the books that most vividly portrays the psychological impact of the Great War is Erich Maria Remarque's The Road Back...not nearly as well known as his All Quiet on the Western Front, but it should be. I reviewed it here.
May '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
WWI was absolutely apocalyptic. The experience explains (if it does not excuse) the reluctance of the French and British to resist Hitler's territorial grabs.
Raises the question how will WWI be commemorated in the US? A block from my house is a statue "Sprit of the American Doughboy" surrounded by seven stones, one for each of the young men from this town who died in America's short involvement.
Also raises the question of what is our country going to look like in 2041 after another 30 years of $1.5 Trillion in annual deficit spending?
Oct '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
My grandfather, a Russian emigrant to Canada, fought and was gassed at Ypres. One of my most prized possessions is his commemorative medal, a bayonet with a mother of pearl handle and Ypres inscribed on the blade.
Dec '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Harumph. Thanks for the post, but things are a bit rough at the Run Ranch, just now, Eldest boy announced his enlistment, yesterday and Momma Run is on the fainitng couch.
Walking a tightrope, here, and this is a clarifying set of observations.
Jul '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Excellent post, Whalen.
I say "Yes" to Yer question of "..will We remember.."
Because of the direction of Our pc culture I get melancholy when I imagine how We'll remember.
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
I was fortunate enough to visit some of the Commonwealth cemeteries near Vimy Ridge several years ago.
I was struck by the patriotism of the inscriptions. If I understand rightly, the Commonwealth soldiers were all volunteers. The inscription that families chose that stuck with me the most was "He died for King and Country."
The state of the cemeteries in France for the French war dead has historically been very bad. The English, Commonwealth, and American cemeteries in France have historically been kept beautifully.
Europe remembers, but it has never recovered.
Mar '11
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Fifteen years ago or so, I took a day tour from Bruges of the WWI battlefields and cemeteries in Flanders. Some of the trench fortifications were still preserved, and the memorial at Ypres and the vast cemeteries still haunt.
Jun '11
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Bill,
Thanks so much for this wonderful post. I certainly HOPE the anniversary of Pearl Harbor is remembered...I know I will. But I have my doubts about the majority of the American people.
In any event, thanks for a remarkable post.
Jul '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
Thanks for the link. It vividly brought to life the feelings of those returning from the war. Interestingly, some commented on the fact that years from now, WWI and II will be looked upon as one war with a slight pause between battles. And that "All Quiet on the Western Front" may have been, in its way, a cause for the unpreparedness of the West for WWII, (or the continuation of the First).
I did have the opportunity to visit the American Cemetery Henri-Chapelle (WW II), about 20 miles from Liege when there on business some years ago. When people see America as imperialistic, an empire builder, they should remember Colin Powell’s words:
"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
Jul '10
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
When tankers and cargo ships tally at the coast, it's because of a lack of demand for their product...
Apr '11
Re: In Flanders Fields . . .
There is a perfectly good reason why and why the US had been so isolationist afterwards. The combat we engaged in at the Meuse Argonne was barbaric: the command telling boys who had nothing but deer rifles and knives attached to them to frontally attack over a field the French had already lost countless of their own in; over muddy fields where there was still gas in the ground from previous battles that came up to burn their skin and lungs alive; and attack a German army who had been masterful in every attack over the same ground since the beginning of the war.
It was a slaughterhouse and most of the men who came back home were not so keen to tell anyone the depths of savagery they had been reduced to to win that battle. It was so bad most of the thinking heads in the Army between the Wars spent their time making sure that did not happen again and it did not happen again, thanks be to God.
Those soldiers were told they were going to save the free world and it did nothing of the sort. We did the next one, however.