Battle(s) of Ypres

Wow, what a very sad battle. It sort of reminds me of the Anglo-Scottish Border Wars, because both sides really got nothing out of them. The English would take parts of Southern Scotland and burn a city or two, and then the Scots would do the same thing to the English. The process continued on for three-hundred years.

 

 

..Several years ago, I visited the battlefields of the Somme and I can relate to your experience and perceptions felt during your visit to Ypres�..

 

..the sight of the cemeteries had a deep and profound personal impact upon me�...in particular, the size of the graveyards and the numbers of casualties the cemeteries contained�

 

�the details of the first day of the battle of the Somme still strike home, I remember writing up an account of my visit shortly afterwards and noted that on �

 

�..�Saturday, 1^st July 1916 at 7.28am the Lochnager Mine was detonated, 7.30am was zero hour for the Allied offensive. The day was an occasion for high optimism and hope, however, it also provided the highest casualty rate of any single day in British military history; 57,470 officers and men, 19,240 killed and 2152 missing. These numbers struck like a thunderbolt; the carnage must have been appalling. John Keegan noted that in some places, the Germans were so shaken by their  �revulsion from the slaughter inflicted� they ceased firing to allow any lightly wounded British to make their way back to their own front line��..

 

�However, it was a German war cemetery that has carried a lasting impression to this very day�.it was hard to try and capture my feelings but I ended up with these few words�

 

��I arrived at Neuville St Vaast Cemetery, a German graveyard and the last I would see on this visit and a chance to take some lunch. Upon arriving, the cemetery seemed deceptive in appearance. I grabbed my lunch provisions then entered through a rather unimposing gate. Once through the gate i was faced with possibly the largest German war cemetery in the world. 44,833 soldiers were buried here; their black metal crosses just reaching forever and ever, a truly astounding but also shocking sight. You may think lunch at a cemetery a little strange, however, this break enabled a considerable pause for reflection, not such a strange idea after all. I sat and ate some food and looked out across this sea of black crosses.  This place was just emotionally awesome, not only were there crosses carrying the names of four soldiers upon it, there were also mass graves marked by weighty pieces of rock carved into Germanic crosses. The place was grim but utterly overpowering, I did not know what to say or think, my limited vocabulary was insufficient to explain my thoughts, and it still is.�� �Finishing my brief meal, I gathered myself and walked on into the depths of the cemetery. In the centre of the cemetery at the head of a paved avenue, there stood a solitary black cross, plain and simple and some twenty feet tall.  Symmetrical lines of graves flanked this solemn monument. For me, this German cemetery illustrated perfectly the sombre aspects of all warfare, the loss of human life being the tragic result of the politics of mankind��..

 

..it would be wrong of me to make comparisons between the battles that took place during WWI�each have their own particular story and level of �casualty rates� and each have a notable place in the history of WWI�.I have not seen the field of Ypres so I cannot comment on your view that in places they resemble a theme park�sad if that is indeed true�.I found the Somme utterly respectable in its monuments and remembrance of what happened there�however, I will say that I am a total advocate of British school children visiting the area�.it is unfortunate that is some respects this could be seen by some as �tourism� and all the negative aspects this brings�� but as long as it is managed effectively, I believe the personal and social educational value is immeasurable�

..I think Komnenos would perhaps agree with me and say that if anyone ever gets the chance, a visit to the battle sites of WWI would indeed be a worthy enterprise�

 

Originally posted by Act of Oblivion      ..it would be wrong of me to make comparisons between the battles that took place during WWI�each have their own particular story and level of �casualty rates� and each have a notable place in the history of WWI�.I have not seen the field of Ypres so I cannot comment on your view that in places they resemble a theme park�sad if that is indeed true�.I found the Somme utterly respectable in its monuments and remembrance of what happened there�however, I will say that I am a total advocate of British school children visiting the area�.it is unfortunate that is some respects this could be seen by some as �tourism� and all the negative aspects this brings�� but as long as it is managed effectively, I believe the personal and social educational value is immeasurable� ..I think Komnenos would perhaps agree with me and say that if anyone ever gets the chance, a visit to the battle sites of WWI would indeed be a worthy enterprise�

Edited by Komnenos - 22-Oct-2006 at 10:12

WWi is no short on such awfull sites. For French people, Verdun and the Chemin des Dames are still sinister names. I guess Galipoli for Aussies, Mesopotamia for Indian or Tannenberg for Russian doesn't sound better.

With maybe the exception of the Iran-Iraq war I cannot see any other conflict so permanently stupid and ridiculous. There is not the slightest shade of intelligence there and one can only wonder why did they obey orders like "you see the machine gun there? Go and get it."

I love you, great new Titan!
Am I not you?
Napoleon and Caesar
Out of you grew.

Out of unthinkable torture,
Eyes kissed by death,
Won back to the world again,
Lost and  won in a breath,

Cruel men are made immortal,
Out of your pain born.
They have stolen the sun's power
With their feet on your shoulder's worn.

Let them shrink from your girth,
That has outgrown the pallid days,
When you slept like Circe's swine,
Or a word in the brain's ways.

                          "Soldier: Twentieth Century",
                                  Isaac Rosenberg




Then the haze lifted. Bombing on the right
Down the old sap: machine guns on the left;
And stumbling figures looming out in front.
'O Christ, they're coming at us!' Bullets spat,
And he remembered his rifle...rapid fire...
And started blazing wildly...then a bang
Crumpled and spun him sideways; knocked him out
To grunt and wriggle: none heeded him; he choked
And fought the flapping veils of smothering gloom,
Lost in a blurred confusion of yells and groans...
Down, and down, and down he sank and drowned,
Bleeding to death. The counter-attack had failed.

                      Excerpt from Siegfried Sassoon's "Counter-Attack"



Not comin' back tonight, matey,
And reliefs are coming through.
We're all goin' out all right, matey,
Only we're leaving you.
Gawd! it's a bloody sin, matey,
Now that we've finished the fight.
We go when reliefs come in, matey,
But you're stayin' 'ere tonight.

Over the the top is cold, matey-
You lie on the field alone.
Didn't I love you of old, matey,
Dearer than the blood of my own?
You were my dearest chum, matey-
(Gawd! but your face is white)
But now, though reliefs 'ave come, matey,
I'm goin' alone tonight.

I'd sooner the bullet was mine,matey--
Goin' out on my own.
Leavin' you 'ere in the line, matey,
All by yourself, alone,
Chum o' mine and you're dead, matey,
And this is the way we part,
The bullet went through your head, matey,
But Gawd! it went through my heart.

                                              "Matey"
                                           Patrick MacGill




I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the laark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

                                              "Suicide in the Trenches"
                                                    Siegfried Sassoon








                                        



Edited by konstantinius - 27-Oct-2006 at 06:21