Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty

Saturday 4th May 2013

Today would see our first full day in Belgium. Much was planned.

The battlefields, memorials and museums we intended to visit formed a circle from Ieper around which we would be travelling anti-clockwise.

A hearty breakfast and a couple of mugs of tea and we were set.

Hill 62 – Sanctuary Wood

Hill 62 is one of the hills around Ieper sitting next to Sanctuary Wood. As a hill it is not that impressive but it seems if you mount some artillery and a force of soldiers on it then it is another story. The elevation provides a clear view over the land towards Ieper.

This is one of the hills held by the Germans and from which Ieper and the allied forces were bombarded by artillery. In the picture below you can see in the distance the clock towers in Ieper.



The hill is now the home of the Hill 62 Memorial. A memorial to the Canadian forces that took the hill from the Germans.

We had evidence that this is one of the places my grandfather had been, and standing on the top of the hill looking around at the countryside, which before the war probably looked much the same as it does now, it is difficult to imagine the scenes witnessed by him looking out over the same view nearly one hundred years ago.

After a slow walk around the memorial, with thoughts of what had been, we headed back down the hill to the Sanctuary Wood Museum.




An interesting place with many artefacts and lots of photographs (some not for the faint hearted). Around the back they also had trenches which were unintentionally authentically presented with a thick lining of mud and water on the floor. A very impressive sight.




The cost of €10 each was a little high relative to other places but there were a lot of things to see as well as a café, although we did not stop.

In one area they had some of the well known posters from the UK aimed to help motivate people to join up, along with many examples of posters used from some of the other countries involved in the conflict.




It of course goes without saying that the Sanctuary Wood Museum/Café sported both flags and artillery.



Our next destination was thankfully one of the POIs we had downloaded to the SatNav before we came.

Punching it in we were off.

Passchendaele Memorial Museum

The journey was thankfully uneventful and with the museum having its own parking we arrived relaxed, with an air of confidence, although slightly hungry.

The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 is a relatively new museum and very well situated with a park and water close by. Also a separate café building where hungry people can stop for a bite to eat (also perfect if you are simply a bit peckish) .



The museum is very impressive. Lots of information about the war in general and detailed information about what happened in the infamous battles around Passchendaele.

Particularly impressive is a reconstruction of an allied deep dugout. Very realistic, especially when you can’t workout how to get out!

All in all a great experience and more than worth the €5 entrance fee.

We stopped for a relaxed spot of lunch, no one was chasing us, and then on to Tyne Cot…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Some parts of the area have remained the same and others have changed.

In Langemark there is a memorial to the 20^th Light Division, the division in which my grandfather had served.

This was of course going to be on our list of places to visit.





Once the memorial stood in open fields but now resides in the middle of an area of housing.

Yorkshire Trench and Dugouts

This was supposed to be one of the trickier places to find but again with our POIs in the SatNav we left Langemark and arrived at the Yorkshire Trench site, situated on an industrial site, with no difficulty at all.

A small site but nevertheless impressive. Only the main trench itself is accessible but information boards explain about the dugout also situated on the site.







The day was drawing to a close and with weariness borne of emotion and thought, we headed back to Ieper to once again attend the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin gate.

To be continued….