April 18: Ypres

Canada's population when World War I broke out in 1914 was a little under 8 million. Over the course of the war, 620 000 Canadians enlisted--only a small number were conscripted in 1918--and served overseas; that's almost 1 in 8 Canadians.

There are three places in Europe that are particularly associated with Canada's involvement in the War: Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and Ypres. (The latter two are now spelt according to their Flemish spelling, Passendale and Ieper, but Canadians know them by their French spellings so those are the ones I'll use.)

Vimy Ridge, in France, was captured by Canadian soldiers in April 1917 after British and French forces were unable to accomplish the task. A huge monument now stands there. Vimy is the most symbolically important victory in Canada's military history.

Passchendaele and Ypres were both part of the Ypres Salient, an extremely strategic area that controlled access to the English Channel: if the Germans had controlled Ypres they could have cut off the supply route from England to France. This probably would have knocked England out of the war.

The Ypres Salient was a 'bubble' in the trench lines that formed around the town of Ypres.

(image credit)

So on a Friday morning, my parents in I set off on a 3-hour roadtrip to Ypres.

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We parked our car on the edge of the town ("town"...population 35,000) and set off on foot. Ypres was first settled in the Middle Ages and still has a moat encircling the center.



As we walked along the moat we saw the major war monument, built over one of the historic entrances to the town: the Menin Gate.



Seen here from the side, up on the moat wall:



And here from the front, down at street level:



The Menin Gate was built in 1927 by the British government. The inscription on the front of the Gate reads: "To the armies of the British Empire who stood here from 1914 to 1918 and to those of their dead who have no known grave."



Along almost every side of the monument is a list of names, first sorted by country and then down into specific regiments and units. There are just under 55,000 names inscribed on the memorial.



The text below reads "Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in Ypres Salient but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death."




6,940 of these names are Canadian.




From there we struck off for the center of town.




The impressive building you glimpsed above is the Cloth Hall. It's the largest secular gothic structure in the world. It was originally completed in 1304 but was completey destroyed by German artillery during the War; in the Flanders Fields Museum, you can read the accounts of Ypres residents who recall the day when the tower went up in flames. The whole complex was rebuilt afterwards, stone by stone.

(The whole town had to be rebuilt as well--it was said that after the War was over, you could stand one side of Ypres and see across the rubble to someone standing on the other side.)





We visited the In Flanders Fields Museum which is inside the Cloth Hall, and then decided to go out and find our bed & breakfast. It was out in the countryside, and, as with any rural location in the area, it was surrounded by WW1 graveyards.

The graveyards were often located where a medical outpost was, because this is where the bodies piled up.



The graveyards are kept up by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and they are beautiful. The grass is cultivated, the gravestones are clean, and the flower gardens are weeded. The graveyards can vary in size but have a few things in common: a giant cross at one end, a registry book by the gate at the entrance, and a huge plaque reading "Their Name Liveth For Evermore".






The gravestones will give you some information on the soldier, if possible: his name, age, country and unit. The British gravestones carry the unit symbol of the soldier. A Canadian gravestone has a large maple leaf at the top. Most graves have a cross, unless the soldier was of a different or no religion (we saw a few Stars of David). There is sometimes an added phrase, chosen by the family.



Canadian graves.



The grave below, with all the flowers, is decorated near the bottom with two large crosses. These symbolize that the soldier won two Victoria Crosses, the highest honour given by the Commonwealth at the time. To win one, the person had to put himself in grave peril in order to save the lives of his comrades. To win two is almost unheard of.



That evening we went back the Menin Gate, where it was now full of people.



Every evening--every single one, all year--there is a ceremony to honour the dead of World War One. That night about 400 people showed up. Any military personnel in the area take part in the ceremony.



At one point five smartly dressed officers showed up, four in Air Force blue and one in Navy black. When we got closer to them, they had Canadian flags on their shoulders. As it turned out, they were all from Winnipeg and were doing a visiting tour through Europe!



After a few wreaths are placed, the Last Post is played.




We visited another cemetary on the edge of town, and then found a pizza joint.



Ypres at night.








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