Belgium Part Seven: Langemarck German Cemetery (Bayers)

So the English did something quite horrid in Langemarck. ROTCs from Berlin University (students exactly my age) were sent by their officer toward British troops. They were outnumbered and inexperienced. The British rounded them up, and shot them all. The first two pictures are from the memorial to them, and I even found a Bayer, Leonard. The rest of the cemetery is dedicated to other German casualties, where I found 13 Bayers, my father's mother's maiden name. When I get back to the states I want to look them up to see if there's any relation: Adolf Bayer, Andreas Bayer, Anton Bayer, Emil Bayer, Ernst Bayer, Friedrich Bayer, George Bayer, Heinrich Bayer, Heinrich Bayer, Hermann Bayer, Jakob Bayer, Jakob Bayer, and Johann Bayer.

Both the British and the Germans respect each other by laying poppies at each others' memorials and cemeteries. They both know the tragedy and pointlessness of WWI and seek peace and respect for one another.

Part Six: Tyne Cot Cemetery

This was our last stop on Saturday. It's Tyne Cot Cemetery, the equivalent to our Arlington Cemetery. Only difference: This is all from one battle... one day. And they're still finding bodies when they can afford to excavate the field across the road.

Belgium Part Five: Talbot House, Poperinge Town death cells, and Boesinghe

Saturday afternoon, after visiting the trenches and the American memorial, we went to Poperinge. Poperinge was a town far enough from the trenches to be safe. Soldiers and Officers would go there to get away, drink, and sleep with the local prostitutes. However, two men didn't like the sinful things these men were doing, so they created the Talbot House, which was essentially an alternative place to relax. At night, they had entertainment, which we got to see, that included songs and cross dressing sometimes. It became a sanctuary of sorts for the men on leave.

However not far from the Talbot House was the death cells. There is no "good guy" in war. In World War I, the men who retreated during battle were shot for "cowardice". This was the British that did this. They would hoard the soldiers in a single tiny cell and one by one, they would move them into another cell with a guard to ensure they didn't commit suicide. The next day, they would tie them to a post (Picture 2) and a doctor would find the soldier's heart and pin a mark where it was on his shirt. Then, about 5 soldiers were forced to shoot and kill their comrade. There is even an account where a soldier almost had to shoot his brother, but they let him step out last minute. It was a disgusting practice.

In the third picture, our group was at Boesinghe, where the Canadian Army major John MacRae composed his world famous poem, "In Flanders Fields":

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Belgium Part Four: BEER!

For all of you who know I hate beer, I had Belgium beer, so HA! It was cherry flavored but it still counts. We went to this bar down the road from our hostel called the 12 Apostles and they had a lot of Catholic/Jesus/Mary paraphernalia. It was the most interesting bar I've been to thus far. So the first picture is me drinking cherry beer (Kriek in Flemish) and it's really tasty and sweet. In the second picture, my roommate's making a purposefully awkward face with (apparently) the best beer in the world: Chimay. She was head over heels, so I'm just gonna take her word for it. By the way, beer is 40 proof in Belgium. That's twice the alcohol content of regular beer, so we got drunk on almost nothing... it was a long night haha.

Belgium Part Three: Vierstraat: American War Memorial/ Bayernwald Trenches

Americans didn't really get into the First World War until the very end, but nevertheless, we have a miniature memorial in Vierstraat (first picture). We literally stopped to take a quick picture.

The trenches were surreal. They are replicas and super clean, and it was a beautiful day outside, so I didn't really feel anything. But if you can imagine, the walls and floors of the trenches were covered in mud, sometimes so thick that the men would actually drown in it, and if they were shot, the mud would swallow them and become their grave. It's no wonder "Shell Shock" developed during this war; now it's known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a serious mental illness due to the witness of terrifying events. To add to the awful living conditions, they had lice and rats littering the place, and if they were lucky, the cats and dogs would survive the battle long enough to hunt them, but that was pretty difficult with the mustard gas.

The picture on the bottom is one of the surviving, original parts of this trench. It's the entrance to an officer's quarters. Im crouched on a rock in the middle of the entrance and if you look closely, you can see there's water surrounding me... it is currently a drought in Belgium, just imagine what it would have been like on a normal rainy day in Belgium (think Seattle, Washington weather).

Sorry for such a grim post, but it was a grim subject.

Belgium Part Two: The Menin Gate/ Ceremony

Menin Gate is one of the larges attractions of Ieper. It's a World War I memorial for the British. Now, almost every surface of this building is covered in names in tiny font, organized by country and station. When I say British, this includes the British Empire, so this memorial includes men from India, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and volunteers from Canada. The Canadians were afraid if the British lost, us Americans would swallow them up without their defense haha. But in all seriousness, there are thousands of names of the dead from the First World War and this is only one of the many memorials. Even today, they excavate fields and find more bodies, and more names and add to the memorial. They literally don't have enough room on this huge structure to include all the dead.

Every evening, they have a ten minute ceremony at 8:00 pm. Everyone gathers as a couple of volunteers play trumpets and children from local schools place Poppie reefs of remembrance on a stand. During the 10 minutes, no one speaks and everything is still. Even to this day, it is a very emotional event, even for the locals, and it happens every single day. WWI is remembered clearly even to this day.

History behind the Poppies: In Britain, instead of Yellow Ribbons like us Americans do to remember fallow soldiers, they lay down plastic Poppie flowers. This started after the First World war. The fields on which the trenches were dug and the battle was fought were poppy fields. The bombs would ravish the fields and would disturb the poppy seeds, which would stain the mud blood red. The fields turned red with real blood and the stain of the poppy seeds. It was a terrifying sight for the soldiers, and extremely symbolic to what was going on at the time. I can't even begin to imagine how revolting it would look. So today, it is a symbol of the pain and suffering that was endured during WWI.

Belgium Part One: Ieper

On Friday morning, we took a bus to Dover where the famous White Cliffs of Dover are. Unfortunately we weren't in a good place to take pictures. I slept on the way there and I had my headphones in. As soon as we entered Dover, "Clocks" by Pink Floyd played on my iPod and if you've ever heard it, the song starts off with a very loud alarm clock so it was the perfect wake up call. Anyway, we took a ferry to Calais, France. The ferry was pretty cool: it had a restaurant, a coffee shop, and even a beauty store with perfumes and makeup. It took about an hour. It amazes me how many different types of transportations there are in Europe and how easy it is to travel through so many countries. Once we landed, we took the bus to Ieper, Belgium.

Just a quick history lesson on Ieper... During WWI, it was the closest town to the battle front and trenches. It was completely demolished. By the end of the war, only the foundations of the buildings survived. Everything in Ieper is a replica of what the buildings looked like. The Cathedral looking building behind me in the above pictures is (or was) the largest Medieval building that was not a church or religious sanctuary. It was used for the market.

We spent the first part of the day just wandering around, eating Belgium waffles, and enjoying the 60 degree weather, which is EXTREMELY rare for Belgium. If you remember anything about WWI movies or history lessons, it was constantly raining. Men actually drowned in mud. So we were really lucky to have such beautiful weather.