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CENTENARY OF THE FIRST WORLD THE CENTENARY OF PASSCHENDAELE – THE THIRD OF

The National Commemoration of the Centenary of Passchendaele – The Third The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Cemetery 31 July 2017 THE NATIONAL COMMEMORATION OF THE CENTENARY OF PASSCHENDAELE – THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Tyne Cot Cemetery

31 July 2017

Front cover: Stretcher bearers struggle in the mud at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, 1 © IWM

1 One hundred years ago today, British troops began their attempt to break out of the Ypres . To mark this centenary, we return to the battlefield to honour all those involved in the ensuing battle which was fought in some of the most wretched conditions of the First World War.

The battlefield of the Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele as it became known, was like no other. A desolate landscape of quagmires and mud, coupled with fierce fighting, concentrated in a small area of ground across which thousands passed; the experience of Passchendaele was seared into the memory of all who survived.

It is deeply humbling to consider how these men, on both sides, withstood such deplorable conditions. Passchendaele is in many ways a tale of human endurance and perseverance, through camaraderie and comradeship, bravery, humour and bittersweet memories of home.

Many who survived the destruction of the battle, as well as the bereaved, would return after the war, bound to the fields of , to visit their own hallowed corners of the landscape, from beloved sanctuaries behind the front lines to the graves of fallen comrades and loved ones. It is in this same tradition of pilgrimage that we gather here today.

On this special occasion, we honour the men who served from across Britain, Ireland, France, and the Commonwealth. We remember, His Royal Highness The Prince of too, the men from Germany who served. And we come together today in a spirit of reconciliation and respect, to reflect upon the shared experiences of war.

This centenary provides us with an opportunity to remember all that those who came before us endured. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

2 3 1O DOWNING STREET SW1A 2AA

We come together today to honour all those involved in a battle that has come to epitomise the horror of war: Passchendaele – The Third Battle of Ypres.

More than half a million men were killed or wounded during this battle alone, and these fields witnessed brutal fighting throughout the war. The sheer scale of the loss confronts us here today at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Tyne Cot Cemetery.

This centenary is an opportunity to recognise the severe impact of the war on those who fought and their families and communities back home. It is an honour to be joined today by so many descendants of those men. The attendance of representatives of antecedent regiments also reminds us of the ways in which we are still connected to those who stood here before us.

I am also very pleased to see so many young people in attendance today. This centenary will, I am sure, encourage future generations to learn more about this part of our shared history and ensure that the fallen are never forgotten.

Passchendaele represents the horror of the First World War, but it also reminds us of the values and goals that bind us together. Men from across Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Commonwealth The Right Honourable Theresa May MP fought side by side. Amidst the chaos and horror of the battlefield, The Prime Minister of the United there were countless acts of bravery and selfless commitment and, and Northern Ireland after such destruction, the Belgian people worked tirelessly to reconstruct the devastated region.

We stand together today as allies and friends to honour the service, sacrifice and courage of those who fought for our freedom.

4 5 On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, I have the honour as President to welcome you to our largest cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot.

There can be no more poignant setting in which to commemorate the Third Battle of Ypres, now forever associated with the village that lies just over the hill: Passchendaele. This was a place that none of those who fought here would ever forget, and today it is the final resting place of some 12,000 soldiers who did not return home.

More servicemen are buried here than in any other CWGC cemetery. Three-quarters of them lie beneath headstones bearing Kipling’s haunting inscription: ‘Known unto God’.

Their names, along with all of those whose remains were never recovered or identified, are inscribed on the CWGC’s Memorials to the Missing: including the Ypres () Memorial, and here at Tyne Cot, where 34,000 are honoured.

At the heart of the cemetery is the Tyne Cot blockhouse, captured at such great cost in . It was transformed into a majestic monument by our architects Sir Herbert Baker and John Reginald Truelove, who himself had served during the war. Two other blockhouses remain among the graves, reminders of the horrific conditions which soldiers on both sides endured. His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission This year marks the centenary of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, whose gardeners have tended the graves here since the aftermath of the conflict, when wooden crosses rose from a sea of mud.

Today, their diligent care ensures that pilgrims and visitors alike can reflect on the battle and its cost in a setting which befits their sacrifice.

6 7 THIS COMMEMORATION IS HOSTED BY THE ORDER OF SERVICE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

WELCOME Pre-event music performed by Band of HM Plymouth Band of the In the presence of Central Band of the Royal Air Force His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

Their Majesties The King and Queen of the Belgians The United Kingdom Guard of Honour is provided by Number 1 Company, Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 1st Battalion , a Light Role infantry battalion currently committed to State Ceremonial and Public Duties. The Right Honourable Theresa May MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The Belgian Guard of Honour is provided by The Regiment Carabiniers – Mr Steven Vandeput, Minister of Defence, Federal Government of Belgium Grenadiers, based at Leopoldsburg. Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Vice Chairman, Commonwealth War Graves Commission Music In Mr Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of the Government of Flanders Words by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae Composed by Alexander Tilley Mr Dirk Sioen, Mayor of Performed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland Representatives of nations that fought in the Third Battle of Ypres 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.

THE CALLING OF THE NAMES

8 9 Reading by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Music Englynion coffa (Elegy for Hedd Wyn) Performed by Rhodri Jones, Meilir Jones and Osian Bowen One hundred years ago today, the Third Battle of Ypres began. At ten Words by R. Williams Parry to four in the morning, less than five miles away from here, thousands Translation by Howard Huws of men drawn from across Britain, France and the Commonwealth attacked German lines. The battle we know today as Passchendaele The Welsh poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his , would last for over one hundred days. We remember it not only for Hedd Wyn, served with the and was killed one hundred the rain that fell; the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed years ago today, on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres. He is buried at the the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who nearby CWGC Wood Cemetery. The poet R. Williams Parry wrote fought here. Englynion coffa Hedd Wyn in remembrance of Hedd Wyn in 1924.

The advance was slow and every inch was hard fought. The land we Y bardd trwm dan bridd tramor, – y dwylo stand upon was taken two months into the battle by the 3rd Australian Na ddidolir rhagor: . It would change hands twice again before the end of the war. Y Ilygaid dwys dan ddwys ddôr, Y Ilygaid na all agor. In 1922 my great grandfather King came here as part of a Wedi ei fyw y mae dy fywyd, – dy rawd pilgrimage to honour all those who died in the First World War. Whilst Wedi ei rhedeg hefyd: visiting Tyne Cot, he stood before the pillbox this Daeth awr i fynd i’th weryd, has been built upon, a former German stronghold that had dominated A daeth i ben deithio byd. the ridge. Tyner yw’r lleuad heno – tros fawnog Once taken by the Allies, the pillbox became a forward aid post to yn dringo: treat the wounded. Those who could not be saved were buried by their Tithau’n drist a than dy ro brothers in arms in makeshift graves; these became the headstones that Ger y ffos ddu’n gorffwyso. are before us today. Trawsfynydd tros ei feini – trafaeliaist Ar foelydd Eryri: After the end of the war, almost 12,000 graves of the British and Troedio wnest ei rhedyn hi, Commonwealth soldiers were brought here from surrounding Hunaist ymhell ohoni. battlefields. Today, a further 34,000 men, who could not be identified or whose bodies were never found, have their names inscribed on Translation: the memorial. The laureate who lies buried – abroad, Thinking of these men, my great grandfather remarked: “I have many The hands forever tied; times asked myself whether there can be no more potent advocate The sad eyes deeply covered, of peace upon earth through the years to come, than this massed The eyes now forever closed. multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.” For your life has now been lived – and your span Came to be completed. Drawn from many nations we come together in their resting place, Now’s the hour: in earth you’re laid, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Your travels terminated. Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget. Tender the moon this evening – as above Trawsfynydd it’s rising; You so sad, as you lie in Soil, by the black trench resting. Trawsfynydd! From its stony – bare peatlands You wandered Eryri; You walked your brackened country, Now you sleep so distantly.

10 11 Reading by Peter Campion Reading by Lance Corporal James Lashmore-Searson, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers A Soldier’s Grave by , 1916 Private C. Miles, 10th Battalion, The , The poet and Irish nationalist Lance Corporal Francis Edward Ledwidge, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, enlisted when war broke out in 1914. He was The moment you set off you felt that dreadful suction. It was forever pulling Killed in Action one hundred years ago today and is buried at Artillery you down, and you could hear the sound of your feet coming out in a kind Wood Cemetery, alongside Hedd Wyn. of sucking ‘plop’ that seemed much louder at night when you were on your own. In a way, it was worse when the mud didn’t suck you down; when it Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms yielded under your feet you knew that it was a body you were treading on. Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death It was terrifying. Lest he should hear again the mad alarms Of battle, dying moans, and painful breath. Reading And where the earth was soft for flowers we made A grave for him that he might better rest. Private Leonard Hart, 2nd Battalion, Otago Regiment, The New Zealand So, Spring shall come and leave it sweet arrayed, Expeditionary Force And there the lark shall turn her dewy nest. Dear Mother, Father and Connie,

Reading In a postcard which I sent you about a fortnight ago, I mentioned that we were on the eve of a great event, and that I had no time to write you a long Sergeant Walter Hubert Downing, 57th Battalion, The Australian letter. Well that great event is over now, and by some strange act of fortune Imperial Force I have once again come through without a scratch.

Men fell silent, or spoke casually, or made surly jests, according to their The great event mentioned consisted of a desperate attack by our Division natures. No one spoke of the task before us. Occasionally we stirred against a ridge, strongly fortified and strongly held by the Germans. For the to brush the dirt from our necks and to empty our pockets of dust. first time in our brief history as an army the New Zealanders failed in their Dry heavy clods of earth flew on the air. Shells roared and moaned objective with the most appalling slaughter I have ever seen. incessantly across the floor of heaven. The sky was starry. My Company went into action 180 strong and we came out 32 strong. Still, we have nothing to be ashamed of as our commander afterwards told us that no troops in the world could possibly have taken the position, but this is a small comfort when one remembers the hundreds of lives that have been lost and nothing gained.

I remain Your affectionate son Len

12 13 Reading by Captain Amelia Cummings, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Reading by Sergeant Justin McLean, Royal Canadian Airforce Nursing Corps (QARANC) Private F. Hodgson, 11th Canadian Field Ambulance, Canadian Army Sister J. Calder, Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Siding Medical Corps

We’d had boys coming in all week, of course, and we’d been busy but I was at a place called Tyne Cot. We had two pillboxes there. It was a group of the ones we got at the weekend were in a shocking state, because so many pillboxes. The doctor and his helpers were in one and we stretcher bearers were of them had been lying out in the mud before they could be picked up by in another about a hundred feet away. the first-aid orderlies. Their clothes were simply filthy. They didn’t look like clothes at all. We had to cut them off and do what we could. In a civilian We put the stretcher-case in a depression in the ground. He was very frightened, hospital – even an army hospital – the man had a home quite near and the wounded boy. He said to me, ‘Am I going to die, mate?’ I said, ‘Don’t be relations possibly, but the wounded man on the battlefield is miles away stupid fella. You’re going to be all right. As soon as Heinie stops this shelling we’ll from his home and his family; he’s in pain and he’s amongst strangers, have you out of here and they’ll fix you up OK. You’ll be back across the ocean and I think that was why sympathy went out from one to the other. before you know it.’ The shelling eased off and we picked him up and set off again. He died before we got to the dressing-station.

Music Lux Aeterna On the way back we passed the remains of our No.1 Squad. There were Performed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland, the Band of nothing but limbs all over the place. We lost ten of our stretcher bearers that HM Royal Marines Plymouth, the Band of the Welsh Guards, and day. Hell was never like that. the Central Band of the Royal Air Force Composed by Edward Elgar Music In Flanders Fields Words by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae Reading by Fusilier Shaun Mclorie, 1st Battalion The Royal Composed by Alexander Tilley Regiment of Fusiliers Performed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland

Private Bert Ferns, 2nd/6th , describing an attack in October 1917 on the land we are gathered on today THE CALLING OF THE NAMES Mr Kay came up and said ‘Come on lads, it’s our turn’, and we just walked round the corner of the pillbox and up the hill. The Germans didn’t have much to fear from me that morning – there was no fire in my belly – no nothing. I staggered up the hill and then dropped over a slope into a sort of gully. It was here that I froze and became very frightened because a big shell had just burst and blown a group of lads to bits; there were bits of men all over the place, a terrible sight, men just blown to nothing. I just stood there. It was still and misty, and I could taste their blood in the air. I couldn’t move. I stood there staring. Then an officer came across and shouted we were too far left and must go half right, I would have probably been dead but for him jolting me out of it. These men had just been killed and we just had to wade through them to get on. That’s one thing I’ll never forget, what I saw and what I smelt.

14 15 Reading by Nina Sosanya Reading

Private Ernest Gays, Cyclist Battalion, Army Cyclist Corps, Killed in Letter from an unknown German officer, 20 Action aged 19 Dear Mother, Dear Friend, On the morning of the 18th, the dug-out, containing seventeen men, I am addressing you as friend as any friend of my Boy’s is a friend. I thank was shot to pieces over our heads. I am the only one who withstood you for sending us word of how our Dear Ernest died. It is dreadful though the maddening bombardment of three days and still survives. You to lose our Dear Boy in this way. We would not believe it till we had the cannot imagine the frightful mental torments I have undergone in those letter from someone who saw him. few hours. After crawling out through the bleeding remnants of my comrades and the smoke and debris, and wandering and fleeing in Did you see my boy after he died, could you tell us how he was? I should the midst of the raging artillery fire in search of refuge, I am now like to know what time of day or night it happened (or thereabouts). awaiting death at any moment.

I am sure we are all the while thinking of you dear lads, hoping and praying You do not know what Flanders means. Flanders means endless for you to be kept safe, and then when these awful tidings are sent us it endurance. Flanders means blood and scraps of human bodies. shakes our faith. But then again when we get calm we know that God is Flanders means heroic courage and faithfulness, even unto death. still in his heaven and He orders all things for the best. I sent Ernie a parcel off on 21st August; if you could see anything of it, will you share what is Your Otto good between you and his friends. I shall never forget you and hope you will write often to me. So thanking you I close.

Yours truly, Mrs. Gays Flowers will be laid at the German graves

p.s. Write soon

16 17 THE COMMEMORATION Prayer by The Venerable Ian Wheatley QHC RN, The Chaplain of the Fleet

Music The Day Thou Gavest Faithful God, compassionate and merciful, Words by John Ellerton Hear us as we remember those valiant hearts Led by the National Youth Choir of Scotland Who fell in the heat of the conflict And died here in the mire and clay of the trenches. Please all stand and sing. We honour the examples of selfless service, Of comradeship and care, that shine out of the loss and waste. The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended, We remember the proud and sorrowing lands The darkness falls at Thy behest; From which they came; To Thee our morning hymns ascended, Those who returned wounded in mind and body; Thy praise shall sanctify our rest. All at home who mourned the dead And all here who suffered the loss of home and community. We thank Thee that Thy church, unsleeping, Guide the nations, united today in sorrow, While earth rolls onward into light, Into the light of freedom, contentment and glorious hope, Through all the world her watch is keeping, And hear the longing of our hearts for peace; And rests not now by day or night. We ask this for the sake of your world And the good of all your children; As o’er each continent and island Through Jesus Christ our Lord. The dawn leads on another day, The voice of prayer is never silent, All: Amen Nor dies the strain of praise away. Please remain standing. The sun that bids us rest is waking Our brethren ’neath the western sky, And hour by hour fresh lips are making Reading by The Right Honourable Theresa May MP, Prime Minister of the Thy wondrous doings heard on high. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

So be it, Lord; Thy throne shall never, Ecclesiasticus Chapter 44, Verses 7–14 Like earth’s proud empires, pass away: All these were honoured in their generations, Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever, and were the glory of their times. Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway. There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported. Please remain standing. And some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten. With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and their children are within the covenant. Their seed standeth fast, and their children for their sakes. Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.

Please remain standing.

18 19 Reading by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Vice Chairman, Wreaths will be laid at the Stone of Remembrance in the following order Commonwealth War Graves Commission His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and His Majesty The King of the Belgians

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, 1914 The Right Honourable Theresa May MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Mr Steven Vandeput, Minister of Defence, They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Federal Government of Belgium Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Vice Chairman, Commonwealth War At the going down of the sun and in the morning; Graves Commission We will remember them. Mr Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of the Government of Flanders, All: We will remember them and Mr Dirk Sioen, Mayor of Zonnebeke Representatives of nations that fought in the Third Battle of Ypres

The Last Post Please remain standing for the playing of the National Anthems. Two Minute Silence

Reveille We invite you to turn towards the main entrance to view a fly-past by the 350th Squadron, 2nd Tactical Wing of the Belgian Air Force.

Please remain standing. Please remain in your position until you are asked to move by an event usher.

THE CALLING OF THE NAMES Concluded by His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A Soldier of the Great War, Known Unto God Music

Band of HM Royal Marines Plymouth Music Solemn Melody Band of the Welsh Guards Composed by Henry Walford Davies Central Band of the Royal Air Force Performed by the Band of HM Royal Marines Plymouth, the Band of the Senior Director of Music Household Division, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Roberts Welsh Guards and the Central Band of the Royal Air Force The National Youth Choir of Scotland Director of Music Christopher Bell

With thanks to The Venerable Ian Wheatley QHC RN, The Chaplain of the Fleet David Cole MVO, Director of Music, The Royal British Legion

20 21 Men of the 129th THE ROAD TO PASSCHENDAELE Baluchis marching to the trenches, The , 1914 © IWM

I suppose no name in history has ever constructed around the city in the had so dreadful a significance for so many 17th Century. In the Middle Ages it human beings as the name of Ypres… Every was a thriving agricultural centre owing yard of that featureless slab of landscape much of its wealth to the cloth and held the menace of death… After the wool trade. Close to the coast, and nightmare of Passchendaele there is no situated on many trade routes, Ypres had conceivable cataclysm of war or nature developed long-standing commercial which civilised man might not endure. and cultural links with Britain. Although A.J. Cummings, 1928 its wealth and population had dwindled considerably by the late 19th Century, The city of Ypres (Ieper) had experienced the city’s famous Cloth Hall was an conflict long before 1914. Flanders architectural inspiration to George was known as ‘the cockpit of Europe’, Gilbert Scott when he came to design The Cloth Hall, Ypres, 1912 such was its reputation as a battleground, the iconic Midland Hotel at St Pancras © IWM and defences and ramparts had been in London.

At the outbreak of war, the vital strategic In early October, the British Expeditionary importance of Ypres was evident. At the Force (BEF) moved into Flanders. To the edge of the coastal plain, it was a gateway north, German attacks along the Belgian to the Channel ports of , coastal plain were held back by the and Boulogne. For the forces of the British remnants of the Belgian Army, supported Empire, the fate of the city was critical. by French Marines, in a series of actions The fighting at Ypres would define the known as the Battle of the . Albert I, war for many servicemen, and its defence King of the Belgians, sanctioned the came to symbolise their efforts. In the opening of the sea defences at Nieuport words of the war artist Paul Nash, Ypres (Nieuwpoort), which flooded the battle became ‘a monument to doggedness’. area and forced the German Army further south in its attempt to reach the THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES Channel ports. 19 OCTOBER – 22 Around Ypres, strong German forces The German Army’s attempt to secure a moving west clashed with the BEF and quick and decisive defeat of France ended French units, in a series of confusing but in failure at the Battle of the Marne in fierce encounters between 19 October September 1914. French and British attacks and 22 November, from Langemarck in the were unable to breach the German lines north-east, through Zonnebeke, Gheluvelt, along the River , and the opposing Zandvoorde, Wytschaete and Messines in forces began to move northwards, the south. Among the troops attempting to outflank each other. engaged in the desperate fighting were

22 23 Men of the According to the British Official History, towards the trenches between Langemarck Oxford and Buckinghamshire the ridge was akin to ‘the rim of a saucer’, and the Yser canal, manned by the two Light Infantry meaning that ‘those inside felt that they remaining French Divisions in the Ypres sheltering from could do nothing without being observed.’ sector. The French were forced to retreat, shrapnel at Ypres, 1914 © IWM The higher ground gave the Germans a leaving a gap of over four miles on the left perfect vantage point from which to direct flank of the nearest British Army forces – artillery fire, enabled them to screen their the Canadian Division. artillery batteries from British attention, and bring up reinforcements and supplies During the night, Canadian units unseen. The Allies, meanwhile, were improvised a series of scattered outposts vulnerable to attacks and fire from every across the breach, before the Germans side. Holding the line here meant being renewed their assault on Canadian lines under constant threat and regular shelling, at dawn on 24 April, again using gas. with the disorienting trench lines often By the afternoon, they had advanced illuminated at night by signal rockets and beyond St Julien. Fighting continued observation flares. over the following days, before Allied forces withdrew to a new line, barely THE three miles from Ypres. Heavy fighting 22 APRIL – 25 MAY 1915 continued in early May on the Frezenberg Ridge, before the largest A British signaller in a dugout with In the late afternoon of 22 April 1915, German gas attack yet seen led to the the first issue of German forces attacked Allied lines in the capture of ground at Bellewaarde Lake. respirator at the north of the Salient, attempting to seize Second Battle of Ypres, 1915 the high ground around Pilckem and After 33 days of fighting, there was no © IWM Langemarck. They discharged poison gas decisive German breakthrough, but the

units of the Indian Army, recently arrived period, in the fighting between the in Europe and put straight into action. French border and the sea, are estimated to have been over 120,000. Between 21 and 24 October, British forces to the north-east of Ypres collided THE with strong advancing concentrations of German troops around Langemarck. The German drive to the Channel ports A series of determined defensive had failed and, as the fighting of the actions prevented a breakthrough, with autumn came to an end, soldiers British rifle fire wreaking havoc against consolidated their improvised trenches repeated German mass infantry attacks. and defensive positions. While German Subsequently mythologised as the forces held the high ground, British and ‘Kindermord’, the German losses would Allied lines now formed a Salient – become infamous. extending into German-held territory, and effectively surrounded on three sides. Fighting along the entire front continued The landscape within the Salient was in deteriorating weather conditions, until low-lying, and water was managed by further German attacks were called off. a complex system of ditches and drains The cost in casualties of the fighting had feeding small streams, known as bekes. been enormous. Between 14 October The gentle hills surrounding the city and 30 November 1914, the BEF suffered rose towards the Passchendaele Ridge, more than 58,000 killed, wounded and named after the village which stood at missing. German losses over a similar its highest point.

24 25 Salient was now much smaller, and famous examples was the trench Clayton to run the establishment and serve too close to the front line. One Casualty even more vulnerable to German artillery newspaper ‘The Wipers Times’, edited as house chaplain. It was named after Clearing Station at Brandhoek, between bombardment. Between 22 April and by Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Neville’s younger brother, Gilbert Talbot, Poperinghe and Ypres, was shelled in 31 May 1915, British Empire casualties Jack Pearson. Taking its name from the who had been killed in action in the August 1917, resulting in the evacuation amounted to over 59,000 men killed, slang word for ‘Ypres’ used by British summer of 1915, and soon became known of all patients and staff. Under such wounded or missing. soldiers, it was a satirical publication by its signaller’s abbreviation ‘Toc H’. circumstances, male doctors and female printed on presses reclaimed from the nurses faced equal danger. Staff Nurse For the next two years, trench raids, ruins around the city. From 1916 until A sign outside declared it to be Nellie Spindler was wounded while sniping and artillery fire continued every 1918, it used satire to make light of the ‘Everyman’s House’, and its guiding sleeping off-duty at Brandhoek, and day, as British Empire servicemen fought everyday struggle of the ‘PBI’ – or ‘Poor principle was egalitarian fellowship, died within 15 minutes. A member of to hold their ground and German troops Bloody Infantry’. devoid of rank or social distinction. It the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military strove to drive them from it. Tunnellers provided refuge for visitors seeking respite, Nursing Service, she was buried with full began a subterranean war, attempting With frontline conditions so challenging, friendship, food and accommodation, and honours on 22 August, at the cemetery to undermine enemy positions, and the areas behind the lines took on even was the scene of regular social functions near Remy Siding. sometimes leading to confrontations greater importance to the physical and for servicemen and the local community. such as at the infamous , to the psychological health of soldiers. The town The attic was converted into a modest THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES south-east of Ypres. By 1917, British of Poperinghe () lay some ten chapel, and as many as 100,000 men were Empire forces were suffering thousands kilometres to the west of Ypres. Known estimated to have attended prayer services After the gruelling of attrition on the of casualties – wounded, missing and before the war for hop production and there over the course of the war. Western Front in 1916 – at Verdun and the killed – every month. brewing, from the autumn of 1914 it Somme – the Allies launched co-ordinated became an important transport hub for After the early, chaotic, weeks of fighting attacks on German forces in the spring of LIFE BEHIND THE LINES supplies and troops destined for the in the autumn of 1914, an organised and 1917. Devised by French General Robert battlefields of the Salient. Direct rail and complex system of casualty evacuation Nivelle, they were intended to achieve a Trenches in the Salient were often road links between Poperinghe and Ypres and treatment emerged between Ypres long-awaited breakthrough. Around , flooded, and in some areas the surface meant that military infrastructure came and the Channel coast. From initial the British Army made some advances – water was so abundant that attempts to dominate the area: depots and stores contact with stretcher bearers, wounded most notably the capture of Vimy Ridge by to dig down were abandoned and for munitions and equipment; casualty servicemen underwent triage and initial the – but a major French instead high ramparts of earth, logs and clearing stations for medical treatment; treatment close to the frontline, but offensive on the Chemin des Dames near sandbags – known as ‘breastworks’ – were camps for thousands of soldiers on their road and rail lines soon enabled their the River Aisne ended in disastrous failure. constructed, to provide shelter for troops way to and from the frontline. transport to established medical facilities and protect them from small arms and in the rear areas. In the Casualty Clearing Morale plummeted within the French artillery fire. Over the months and years Poperinghe suffered occasional Station at Remy Siding, near Poperinghe, Army, and many units refused to engage of , everyday life in the bombardment but remained relatively professional medical staff treated tens of in offensive actions. With the Russian front lines became, at times, unbearable. unscathed for much of the war and thousands of wounded soldiers. Army on the Eastern Front rocked by provided many rest and recreation heavy losses, and the collapse of the Soldiers entering the Salient passed facilities for Allied troops, becoming The main role of the Royal Army Medical Tsarist regime after a revolution earlier in villages reduced to little more than known as ‘Little Paris’. According to Corps was to maintain the Army’s fighting the year, it was imperative for the British mounds of debris and dust. Lines of the British author Edmund Blunden, strength as effectively as possible. Over Army to take the lead in engaging the duckboards – wooden planks forming it was ‘one of the wonders of the world’. the course of the war, medical treatment Germans before they could target the a makeshift road – stretched around the Local people remained in residence, improved significantly. From improvements weak points in the Allied lines. shell-holes and across the wasteland. many running the shops, restaurants, in sanitary care, to the expansion of blood Rations were carried up to the line in bars and brothels that catered for the transfusion, nitrous oxide and oxygen Sir Douglas Haig, the British commander- sacks: bread and biscuits, tins of stew huge influx of soldiers. anaesthesia, and particularly advances in-chief, had long desired an offensive in and bully beef. Troops often drank their in anti-infection techniques, practical Flanders, but Prime Minister David Lloyd tea and ate their dinner under fire in their The most famous establishment in the experience led to a highly effective system George remained sceptical of committing dugouts. Dead bodies in no-man’s land town was Talbot House. It was conceived of care. Psychological conditions, however, to another major operation on the Western encouraged a proliferation of rats. by Neville Talbot, Senior Chaplain to the remained less well understood or treated. Front, after heavy casualties had led to 6th Division, who arranged for the army such apparently limited gains. In February Soldier-culture responded to such adversity to rent the mansion of a local brewer. Medics worked under pressure, and 1917, the German Navy resumed through black humour. One of the most Talbot appointed Reverend Philip ‘Tubby’ sometimes under direct fire if they were unrestricted submarine warfare, leading

26 27 to a dramatic increase in the rate of batteries lay; and the Passchendaele Ridge wounded and captured, while the German pillboxes remained intact, and German merchant shipping losses. This helped to the north-east, which had dominated the Army lost around 26,000 men. artillery continued to mass behind the to build political backing for Haig’s Salient for nearly three years. high ground. It also helped to destroy the ambitious plans. After the success at Messines, nearly drainage system of the land British troops THE BATTLE OF MESSINES, seven weeks passed before the main would soon attack. As the assault troops The great Flanders offensive was 7–17 JUNE 1917 offensive was launched. Haig had formed up, rainclouds were beginning conceived in part as a means of breaking appointed General Sir to form. out of the dangerous Ypres Salient and The campaign began in June 1917, to lead it, and his Fifth Army would be driving north and north-eastwards towards when General Sir Herbert Plumer’s joined by the French First Army, under THE BATTLE OF PILCKEM RIDGE, the Belgian coast, where British troops Second Army attacked Messines Ridge. General Anthoine. Their preparations 31 JULY – 2 AUGUST would land from the sea and advance Tunnels had been dug beneath German were vital to the success of the operation, THE BATTLE OF LANGEMARCK, towards the ports of and positions, and explosives placed within but meant the loss of precious summer 16–18 AUGUST Oostende, to neutralise the German them were detonated with dramatic weather. The delay also allowed German U-boat bases there. The primary strategic effect. After months of preparation, forces in the region to enhance their At 3.50am on 31 , two objective, however, was the capture of well-drilled forces from Britain, Ireland, already extensive and formidable system thousand Allied guns opened up on Roulers, an important railway hub twelve and New Zealand combined of defences. Rather than holding the front German lines, and fourteen British and miles to the north-east of Ypres, which to capture the high ground, in one of the lines in strength, they intended to draw two French divisions attacked along was vital to German forces. most successful operations of the war. the attackers into killing zones between 15 miles of the front. Rather than the At the heart of the battlefield, at lines of mutually-supporting concrete dawn assault originally envisaged, low In order to achieve this, British forces Wytschaete, the 16th (Irish) Division strongpoints, known as pillboxes. cloud meant that soldiers emerged from A soldier looks out across the Douve would first need to seize the German-held and 36th (Ulster) Division advanced their forward positions in gloom. The most Valley, as shells ridges which dominated Ypres: Messines alongside one another: the first time For the , the offensive significant success was achieved in the explode on the Ridge to the south of the Salient; the formations from southern and northern began in early July. Aerial reconnaissance north, particularly across Pilckem Ridge. village of Messines, 8 June 1917 Gheluvelt Plateau – uplands to the east Ireland had fought together. British Empire was critical for the effectiveness of the Here, Welsh and Irish troops played an © IWM of Ypres behind which German artillery casualties totalled some 24,500 killed, artillery, providing photography and important role, and among their dead observation which mapped out enemy were two highly regarded poets: Ellis positions. By this time, the war above Evans (better known by his bardic name the Western Front had developed into a ‘Hedd Wyn’) and Francis Ledwidge. ruthless and deadly battle. At Ypres, fighter To the left of Fifth Army, French troops patrols aggressively pursued and engaged regained Bixschoote, while St Julien and German planes, protecting the vulnerable Frezenberg were captured, as were reconnaissance aircraft. Squadrons were Bellewaarde Ridge, Hooge, Sanctuary also assigned to bomb enemy aerodromes Wood and part of Shrewsbury Forest. and key logistical positions such as headquarters, road and rail junctions, By late afternoon, however, fierce and trench strongholds. This struggle German counter-attacks had regained would continue over the coming months, much ground, and wet weather had set as flyers fought for control of the skies in. Ceaseless unseasonal rain over the above the Salient, often watched from following days turned the shell-damaged below by the infantrymen on both sides. ground into a quagmire, severely hampering the movement of advancing On 16 July, British artillery began to men. This made bringing up the artillery bombard German positions across the a Herculean task, and hampered the front, growing in intensity as the start transportation of casualties backwards of the offensive drew nearer. For many and supplies forward. Gruelling for the German soldiers, it was the most terrifying infantry, movement through the swamp- demonstration of firepower they had yet like conditions was equally arduous for experienced. Much of the front line was horses, mules and . Fresh attacks destroyed, but the bombardment failed were launched on 10 August towards to eliminate the defences entirely. Many Westhoek and on 16 August towards

28 29 British soldiers , with limited success. By as targeting German artillery batteries. watching the mid-August, the initial momentum of Greater numbers of British guns were bombardment of the German line the offensive had faltered in the already- concentrated for this task, and aircraft during the Battle infamous mud. were used to provide systematic aerial of Langemarck, observation of German troop movements. 16 August 1917 © IWM THE BATTLE OF THE MENIN ROAD RIDGE, 20–25 SEPTEMBER On 20 September, Allied forces attacked THE , on a front of around eight miles, towards 26 SEPTEMBER – 3 OCTOBER what the British called the Menin Road Ridge. Among them was the 9th (Scottish) THE , Division, including the South African 4 OCTOBER Brigade. By mid-morning, they had captured most of their objectives. German September saw a break in the weather, counter-attacks began in the afternoon, and relief from the incessant rain. but after several hours had failed to gain Command of the offensive passed from back much ground. Gough to Plumer, who oversaw careful preparations for a major new attack. A second major assault began in hot, dry Previously ambitious plans were replaced conditions on 26 September, when British with more limited objectives. The ‘bite- Empire forces – including many Australian and-hold’ tactics were intended to capture units – attacked around Polygon Wood. ground which was defensible against the The policy of aiming for limited objectives inevitable German counter-attacks. British continued: British attacks were led by artillery focused on destroying German lines of skirmishers, followed by small pillboxes and machine-gun nests, as well infantry columns, with vastly increased

Left: A wire- carrying party during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, 31 July 1917 © IWM

Right: South African soldiers of the 9th (Scottish) Division during the Battle of Menin Ridge Road © IWM

30 31 artillery support, providing a ‘creeping’ particularly as a result of intelligence to protect the attackers. Along reports which highlighted the strain with the much-improved weather, these German forces were under. Yet the tactics led to significant success and fine weather which had assisted these inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, advances would soon come to an end. who were forced to reassess their defensive arrangements. A series of THE , desperate German counter-attacks over 9 OCTOBER the following days failed in the face of THE FIRST BATTLE OF British artillery and machine-gun fire. PASSCHENDAELE, 12 OCTOBER

Another major attack was launched THE SECOND BATTLE OF A single soldier Prince Rupprecht would call the weather impassable battlefield. It took three on 4 October, to complete the capture PASSCHENDAELE, makes his way “our most effective ally”. major efforts over the following days 26 OCTOBER – 10 NOVEMBER through the of the Gheluvelt Plateau and occupy battlefield of the until Canadian forces, supported by Broodseinde Ridge. The British ‘hurricane’ First Battle of The first push towards the village of other units of the British Army including bombardment began without warning, In October, the heavy rain returned, Passchendaele Passchendaele on 12 October saw the 63rd (Royal Naval Division), reached © IWM achieving complete surprise and catching soaking the ground and diminishing the minor advances, but German counter- the highest points of the ridge. On German forces in the open as they effectiveness of the British artillery. An attacks soon recaptured lost ground. 10 November, a final push by Canadian prepared another counter-attack near attack on 9 October achieved only limited The quagmire helped to neutralise the troops finally secured the village, and Zonnebeke. Although the British advance success, and German defences held firm, artillery and now made movement almost offensive operations were halted. There had mixed success, the German Army bolstered in part by improved barbed wire impossible at times. Such experiences left were further actions later in November, Men of the 13th suffered devastating casualties, and it which combined with the boggy conditions Allied forces exhausted and demoralised. but the Third Battle of Ypres was over. Australian Field became known as a ‘black day’. to hinder the attacking troops. As the rain Among the 13,000 casualties were many Ambulance at the Battle of Polygon After three successful set-piece attacks, continued, the battlefield began to resemble Anzacs, including some 2,735 New The British Official History recorded a Wood © IWM British commanders were optimistic, a sea of mud. German commander Crown Zealanders. In a disastrous attack at total of 244,897 British Empire casualties Bellevue Spur, over 840 had been killed. killed, wounded and missing, during In terms of lives lost in a single day, the offensive. Recent estimates suggest a 12 October 1917 remains the greatest higher total, thought to have been around disaster in New Zealand’s history. 275,000. While the French Army suffered around 8,500 casualties, German losses Operations were paused during the remain controversial. Estimates range from worst of the weather, while preparations 217,000 to around 260,000. continued for another attempt to reach

Wounded men Passchendaele. The Canadian Corps had AFTER PASSCHENDAELE at a Royal Army been brought into the Salient, and took Medical Corps the lead in a renewed attack on In the spring of 1918, the German forces advanced dressing station near 26 October. The final actions were fought began a series of major offensives along Boesinghe © IWM in indescribable conditions on a near the Western Front. In Flanders, they swept through much of the ground that had been won by the Allies at such cost the previous autumn. Ypres came close to falling, but the city remained defiant, and by the end of April the German onslaught had been halted. In August, the Allies began their own offensive which would ultimately end with the signing of the Armistice, and victory. By mid-October, the success of Allied operations along the line from Nieuport to Verdun meant the Salient had seen its last fighting. Allied

32 33 be framed as another battle of attrition: which emerged from the conflict. The army which fought at the Somme became drawing in and wearing down German South African Brigade had been fighting one characterised by conscripts. Although forces on territory they could not afford for over a year as part of the 9th (Scottish) contemporary press reports framed the to yield, creating the conditions for Division), and the experience at Ypres fighting in Flanders in defiant terms, their eventual collapse. For German in September 1917 was another in a there was no escaping the ordeal that commanders, including Crown Prince series of costly battles which had begun the British Army had gone through. Rupprecht, the battles of the autumn of with Delville Wood on the Somme. For The same was true, however, for 1917 were certainly sobering. A total of Australian units, which had suffered German forces. eighty-eight divisions – over half of all serious losses throughout 1917, the final those in France and Flanders – had been months of Third Ypres proved the lowest Passchendaele marked the final great battle engaged and had suffered heavy losses. physical and psychological point in their of trench warfare on the Western Front. In the set-piece attacks of September, time on the Western Front. And for New Those that came after it were smaller in German defenders were powerless to hold Zealand, the death toll of 12 October scale, or very different in character. Almost back British forces, and suffered immense would remain unsurpassed. every aspect of the Third Battle of Ypres damage from the artillery. Together with the remains surrounded by controversy: its Allies’ material superiority, bolstered by the Across England, Scotland, Wales and origins, purpose and conduct; and the prospect of American forces on the Western Ireland, the offensive came during the fighting conditions, consequences and Front, the experience helped convince the lowest ebb of military and domestic casualties. Yet for the Allied and German A German soldier soldiers broke out of their long-held German High Command to prepare for a morale. The period between the spring armies alike, the experience came to seated on wooden foothold in Flanders and pushed make-or-break offensive in the spring of of 1917 and 1918 was marked by war- epitomise the most horrific aspects of track between Men of the 13th Ypres and the German Army back to the eastern 1918, which was to prove a turning point Battalion, Durham weariness and domestic discontent, warfare on the Western Front. Passchendaele Belgian border. in the war on the Western Front. Light Infantry strikes and increasing demands on the © IWM during the Battle war economy, partly due to the impact of the Menin Road Estimates of casualties for British Empire What had been known initially as the Ridge, September of shipping losses. It marked a period forces resulting from the occupation and ‘Flanders Offensive’ by the British was 1917 © IWM when the professional and volunteer fighting around Ypres between 1914 and officially termed ‘The Battles of Ypres, 1918 were in the region of 500,000 dead, 1917’ by the British Battles Nomenclature wounded and missing. Ultimately, no less Committee. More widely, it became than a quarter of all those servicemen known as ‘The Third Battle of Ypres’ or from across the British Empire killed in simply ‘Third Ypres’. There were other action during the First World War lost their names, including the evocative phrase lives in the Ypres Salient. coined by in his memoirs in the 1930s: ‘the campaign THE LEGACY OF PASSCHENDAELE of the mud’. By the 1920s, however, it began to be referred to in the press More than one hundred days of fighting and elsewhere as the ‘Passchendaele during the Third Battle of Ypres saw no Offensive’, after the village and ridge strategic breakthrough, and the advance which became the focus of the advance of around five miles left the Allies holding and, in time, the fighting at Ypres in the an enlarged line which remained a highly summer and autumn of 1917 was often vulnerable Salient. British forces had called simply ‘Passchendaele’. already been transferred to Italy, to shore up the Allied effort after the disastrous For the Dominion forces, the battle . Although the was not so famous, or infamous, as Passchendaele ridge had been taken, the other campaigns, but was nevertheless railhead at Roulers – as well as the Belgian significant. Along with the victory at coast beyond – remained out of reach. Vimy Ridge, the capture of Passchendaele helped to cement the reputation of In the aftermath of the battle, and in Canadian soldiers as elite assault troops, the years to come, the campaign would contributing to a sense of national pride

34 35 ART AND THE YPRES SALIENT

Popular memory of the war in Britain created many of the best-known works and throughout the British Empire was inspired by Third Ypres. Among them profoundly influenced by the soldiers’ were Christopher Nevinson’s Harvest experiences of the Ypres Salient. It of Battle and Paths of Glory, and Paul permeated visual culture, and shaped Nash’s Void and The Menin Road: artistic and literary responses to the a powerful depiction of danger, war. Depictions of the Third Battle of dislocation and despair. Ypres, and the shattered fields around Passchendaele, helped to cement the In the years after the war there were struggle as – in the words of British artist many published accounts and memoirs Wyndham Lewis – ‘an epic of mud.’ by soldiers, but only a few of the most famous literary figures of the war Much of the most famous wartime experienced Third Ypres, and often the photography was captured during battle formed only part of prose accounts the battle, and delivered to the public of the war. Ivor Gurney, reflecting on through the newspapers. John Warwick the battle years later, recalled ‘the fiery Brooke’s image of a group of men mouth of hell’, and Herbert Read drew struggling with a stretcher in knee- on his experiences near Zillebeke in his deep mud appeared in the Daily Mirror poem ‘Kneeshaw Goes to War’. Edmund under the headline ‘That Eternal Mud Blunden wrote about his experiences – Flanders: One Vast Quagmire.’ Among in Undertones of War, which included the government-sponsored photographers verses inspired by the battle. present were those from the Dominions, The Menin Road, Paul Nash © IWM such as the Canadian William Rider- Ernst Jünger’s is among Rider, and Australian Frank Hurley. the best-known German accounts, but Local photographers documented a others such as George Grabenhorst and different side of the war. Maurice and Rudolf Binding conveyed the terrible Robert Antony had photographed Ypres ordeal of German soldiers during the in peacetime, but returned to record the battle. Although Siegfried Sassoon was destruction of the city and the devastation not present at Ypres in 1917, his poem in the aftermath of the conflict. Memorial Tablet (Great War), written in October 1918, is perhaps the most Many small, modest illustrations and famous literary description today: drawings were created by those who fought at Third Ypres, often in personal ‘I died in Hell – (they called it books or letters. Others were created Passchendaele)’. later, such as Otto Dix’s painting Flanders, which depicts German soldiers sinking into the mire. The British government’s specially-commissioned war artists

36 37 obliterated, with the historic Cloth Hall RECONSTRUCTION AND COMMEMORATION reduced to ruins.

Many local people remained resolute, returning to their homes after fleeing the early fighting, until the German advance of April 1915 led to the evacuation of the citizens, forcing them to abandon their homes and streets. By the end of the war, barely a handful of houses remained The pilgrim will come to a few square arena ringed round with tremendous standing. In 1920, in honour of all that miles of bare-looking, treeless, but guns, that gradually lost all semblance the city and its inhabitants endured cultivated ground in which villages of human habitation, and became a throughout the war, Ypres was awarded of crude brick have sprung to mushroom vast featureless bog in which a quarter the British Military Cross and the French growth. He will find it very difficult to of a million men, our countrymen, Croix de Guerre. appreciate, or even faintly to imagine, died, in which hundreds of thousands what this Ypres Salient was. It may almost suffered, that the enemy should After the end of the fighting, the long be said that what he sees will mislead not pass. Civilians leaving The City of Ypres had its first taste of process of reconstruction began. From him. So before he attempts to look Ypres, November war in , when German around 6,000 inhabitants in 1920, the 1914 © IWM around, he should charge his mind with Beatrix Brice, Ypres – Outpost of the cavalry entered the town, and it remained population grew to over 15,000 by 1930. the knowledge that these few square Channel Ports (1929) only a few kilometres away from the Although this was around 90% of the miles were a battlefield fought over, frontline for four years. In November pre-war population, barely half had lived backwards and forwards, by almost 1914, it came under bombardment from in Ypres before 1914. From 1919, the every unit in the British Army; that this German artillery and over the following Belgian government provided aid to the small district was a closely contained months the centre of the city was virtually region through the King Albert Fund and

Ruins of the Cloth Hall, Ypres, 1916 The ruins of Ypres © IWM © IWM

38 39 other subsidies, helping with temporary varied, but eventually it was decided The ‘Ypres League’ was founded in lines, and countless bodies still lay out accommodation, goods and supplies. that, rather than preserving the ruins, 1920 by Colonel Henry Beckles Willson, on the old battlefields. With the civilian But the process of rebuilding took many Ypres would be recreated according to a Canadian veteran and town-major population beginning the long task of years; it was not until 1960 that the last its pre-war character. of Ypres. It was a society for veterans rebuilding their farms, towns and lives, reconstruction work was finished. which would preserve the memory of the battlefields had to be searched and PILGRIMS those who lost their lives, as well as cleared of the detritus of war. In January 1919, Winston Churchill providing practical support for pilgrims commented that: “I should like to acquire By the mid-1920s the city was already travelling to the battlefields. Among its Among those who helped with this the whole of the ruins of Ypres... A more a destination for pilgrims and tourists, patrons were King George V, the Prince task were labourers from many nations, sacred place for the British race does not from Belgium, France, Britain and of Wales, and Princess Beatrice, youngest including servicemen from India, and exist in the world.” Many of the British further afield. Hostels, cafes and stalls daughter of Queen Victoria, whose son members of the Chinese Labour Corps. inhabitants of the post-war city felt the catering for the influx of visitors began – Prince Maurice of Battenburg – had First arriving near the front in mid-1917, same way. A sign was erected in the to spring up around Ypres and Poperinghe, been killed in the First Battle of Ypres. tens of thousands of Chinese workers ruins of the Cloth Hall, reading ‘This is and across the former battlefields. In The League published the Ypres Times contributed to the efforts of British and holy ground.’ Yet Belgians had begun 1928, an estimated 11,000 people – newspaper as well as several guidebooks French forces, particularly at dockyards, to consider reconstruction long before: including many veterans and bereaved to the Salient, organised an annual repairing roads or digging trenches. The 1928 British conferences in London had debated family members – visited Ypres as ‘Ypres Day’ on 31 October, and was Almost 100,000 were in service with Legion Pilgrimage, Market Square, the issue as early as 1915. Attitudes part of a pilgrimage organised by the instrumental in the construction of St British forces between 1917 and 1920, Ypres © IWM towards architecture and planning British Legion. George’s Memorial Church, officially and in May 1919 an estimated 12,000 opened in 1929.Memorials to those remained near Ypres and Poperinghe. who had fought and died in the Salient With the end of hostilities, they were began to appear before the fighting was assigned to battlefield clearance: dealing over, and after the end of hostilities with unexploded ordnance, filling more permanent structures began to be in trenches, and recovering bodies. constructed. Today, they mark the efforts It was difficult, dangerous and often of many regiments, divisions and demoralising work carried out among forces: the New Zealand memorial at the most horrifying circumstances. Gravenstafel; the Canadian ‘Brooding Soldier’ at St Julien; and the Graves Registration Units recorded memorial at Polygon Wood. the wartime burial grounds and recovered Among the most recent additions are the remains of thousands who had lain the Scottish memorial on Frezenburg unburied for years, with any clues to their Ridge, and the fierce Welsh red dragon identities long lost. These servicemen at Langemark. To the south of Ieper, at numbered more than 40,000. Today, they Messines, a Peace Park honours all constitute around a third of the marked those who served from across the island graves in the Salient, and their headstones of Ireland. bear ’s phrase ‘A Soldier of the Great War, Known Unto God’. CEMETERIES Many of the small soldiers’ cemeteries were brought together with newly- By 1919, the Ypres Salient was a discovered remains to create larger desolate place. There were hundreds ‘concentration’ cemeteries. of soldiers’ cemeteries dotted across the shattered landscape, many more Once filled and closed, the cemeteries than remain today. Most were little passed into the care of the Imperial more than bare expanses of trodden (now Commonwealth) War Graves earth, a few untidy rows of graves with Commission, which completed the work battered wooden markers. There were of construction, turning them into the clusters of graves in fields, on canal permanent memorials which remain banks, along roads and light railway today. The Commission had been formally

40 41 founded by Royal Charter in May 1917, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, just before the Third Battle of Ypres. and from across the Commonwealth. At Farm Cemetery are the graves In the 1920s, the IWGC’s gardeners of nineteen members of the British and officials were a significant presence West Indies Regiment, most of whom in Ypres, often working closely alongside died in September and October 1917, local people, the Ypres League, and as they worked to transport supplies other organisations. Today, as well as and ammunition. the Ramparts Cemetery and Reservoir Cemetery, a flavour of that presence can The most significant French burial be seen in the old IWGC sign which ground in the Ypres area is the Saint remains beneath the Gate, directing Charles de Potyze cemetery. First created pilgrims towards the many cemeteries during the war, it now contains the graves which dotted the battlefields. of over 3,500 identified servicemen, with the remains of over 600 more in Across the Salient there are CWGC an ossuary. Not far away is Le Mont- cemeteries at every turn, often marked Kemmel French Military Cemetery, by the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’, designed by created in 1922, where the remains Sir Reginald Blomfield. A few are original of over 5,200 soldiers are interred in cemeteries created during the war and an ossuary. preserved largely in the same layout, but many more were expanded later. The most significant German cemetery They are often the most tangible physical in the region is at Langemark, not far reminder of fiercely contested parts of the from the site of the infamous ‘Kindermord’ battlefield, often containing thousands in the autumn of 1914. Its aesthetics of headstones and bearing names which reflect the traditional German evoke the wartime experience: Polygon waldfriedhof, or ‘forest cemetery’. Wood, Hooge Crater, Sanctuary Wood, Begun in 1915, it grew during the Prowse Point, Artillery Wood. First World War, and thousands more graves were moved to Langemark Others lay behind the lines, near medical following the Second World War after stations and hospitals. One of the most being exhumed from other German famous today is Essex Farm Cemetery, to cemeteries and nearby battlefields. the north of Ieper close to the Yser canal. Today, more than 44,000 German It was here that John McCrae composed war dead are buried at Langemark, his poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, while of whom nearly 25,000 were interred The Menin Gate, identified and had been buried beneath TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 1928 © IWM serving with the Canadian Army Medical in a mass grave. a headstone bearing Kipling’s haunting WHO STOOD HERE Corps in May 1915. Further behind the inscription, ‘Known Unto God.’ FROM 1914 TO 1918 frontline were larger cemeteries, often THE YPRES (MENIN GATE) The Menin Gate was one of the first AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD sited alongside more extensive medical MEMORIAL and perhaps the most famous of the WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE facilities called Casualty Clearing Stations. many great monuments constructed Among the most important is Lijssenthoek By the end of the Great War, the by the Commission around the world. A location was settled after long Military Cemetery, the former burial Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Carved onto its walls and beneath its deliberations over the most appropriate ground of the Casualty Clearing Station at Graves Commission estimated that of arches are the names of some 54,000 site. The Menin Road had been one Remy Siding, to the west of Poperinghe. the ‘million dead’ of the British Empire, members of British and Commonwealth of the key routes east from the city for With over 10,000 graves, it is the second- only half had identified grave sites. The forces who were killed in the Ypres hundreds of thousands of troops moving largest CWGC cemetery in Belgium. remainder were ‘missing’: their bodies Salient and have no known grave. up to the frontline, and integrating the had not been recovered; their graves It also honours all those who served monument within the historic ramparts Today, the CWGC’s cemeteries reflect had been unrecorded, lost or destroyed here, bearing an inscription devised lent it particular resonance. Sir Reginald the efforts of servicemen from across by battle; or their remains could not be by Kipling: Blomfield was appointed as principal

42 43 architect, with sculptural work provided in the presence of thousands of veterans by Sir William Reid Dick. and family members. Crowds lined the ramparts and the streets, and loudspeakers Almost every regiment of the British relayed the events to the market square. Army was represented among the names Millions in the United Kingdom listened inscribed on the memorial, along with to the radio broadcast by the BBC. In his those who served with Australian, address, Plumer reflected on those who Canadian, Indian and South African had lost loved ones, but who had no forces. The New Zealand authorities burial place at which to mourn: “now it decided to commemorate their ‘missing’ can be said of each one in whose honour elsewhere on several smaller memorials we are assembled here today: ‘He is not across the battlefields. There were also missing; he is here’.” further memorials to the missing lost in the sectors to the north, at Nieuwpoort, At the end of the ceremony, buglers of and to the south, at Ploegsteert. After the sounded the construction of the Menin Gate began, ‘Last Post’ and pipers of the it became clear that it would not be played a lament. Soon afterwards, the sufficient to bear the names of all who simple, solemn act of sounding the Last had perished in the Salient with no Post became a daily ritual, led by the local known grave, and so 35,000 others fire brigade of Ypres. It has been sounded were included on a memorial at Tyne under the arch every night at 8pm almost Cot Cemetery. every day since, except during the Second World War when Belgium was again The Menin Gate was unveiled by Field occupied. Today, organised by the Last Marshal Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927, Post Association, the ceremony is often

The unveiling attended by hundreds of those who have was labelled ‘Tyne Cott’ on British trench ceremony of Tyne come to pay their respects, in the long maps, and was captured by the 3rd Cot Cemetery at the Stone of tradition of pilgrims and visitors stretching Australian Division on 4 October 1917, Remembrance back to the 1920s. during the Third Battle of Ypres. Several © CWGC German blockhouses stood here, TYNE COT CEMETERY captured at great cost, and the largest AND MEMORIAL was subsequently used as a medical post. Nearly 350 of those who did not After the end of the First World War, when survive their injuries – including four the cemeteries of the Imperial War Graves German soldiers – were buried around Commission were first formalised and the blockhouse, all of whom died between constructed, many smaller burial grounds 6 October 1917 and March 1918, when dotted across the landscape were brought the German Army recaptured the ridge. together. Along with the remains of those soldiers discovered on the battlefields, After the end of the war, remains began they formed what became known as to be brought from elsewhere, and the ‘concentration’ cemeteries. Tyne Cot is cemetery grew around the original graves. the most famous of these. Buried here In May 1922, it was visited by King are nearly 12,000 servicemen, of whom George V during his pilgrimage to the almost three-quarters remain unidentified. Western Front. He was in favour of the A German blockhouse at There are more graves here than in any preservation of the blockhouses around Tyne Cot Cemetery other CWGC cemetery in the world. which the graves had been laid out, the after the war © CWGC The land on which the cemetery stands largest of which would form the base

44 45 reflected in the anchoring of the cemetery between the pillboxes, and the strong sense of placement within the former battlefield, with vistas across the Salient back towards Ypres. Sculptures were crafted by Ferdinand Victor Blundstone and Joseph Armitage, including the angels surmounting the chapels.

Today, Tyne Cot Cemetery is one of the most-visited locations on the Western Front, with over 500,000 visitors estimated every year. They come to reflect on the experiences of all those who served, and on the sacrifices of those who lie buried here, cared for in perpetuity by

Tyne Cot Cemetery of the Cross of Sacrifice. The concrete the Commonwealth War Graves © CWGC is still visible today, along with an Commission. They are part of a long inscription which reads: line of visitors who have come to the battlefields of the Salient for nearly a THIS WAS THE century. Whether tourists or pilgrims, TYNE COT BLOCKHOUSE they ensure that what happened in the CAPTURED BY THE fields around Passchendaele will never 3rd AUSTRALIAN DIVISION be forgotten. 4th OCTOBER 1917

Tyne Cot Cemetery also became the location for a memorial to the missing, required to supplement the Menin Gate, which proved insufficient to commemorate all those who died in the Salient with no known grave. Inscribed here are the names of some 35,000 soldiers, most of whom lost their lives after 16 August 1917. A memorial to the missing of New Zealand who died in the vicinity is incorporated within the wall.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by Herbert Baker, one of the IWGC’s principal architects, and John Reginald Truelove, who had served with the London Regiment during the war. Baker drew inspiration from his work at Soldiers travelling along the Menin Winchester College, particularly in the Road to the use of flint and dressed stone, as well frontline © IWM

as cloisters and walls evoking English The Passchendaele designs. Truelove’s experiences were landscape © IWM

46 47 To honour and remember the lives of those who served in and were affected by the war, the UK Government is leading a national centenary programme of ceremonial events, cultural activity and education.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, supported by 10 Downing Street, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Education, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and working in partnership with key delivery partners, is the lead UK Government Department for the commemoration of the First World War. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport chairs an expert advisory panel to oversee the four-year programme, building a commemoration fitting of this significant milestone in world history.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was founded by Royal Charter on 21 May 1917 and is responsible for the commemoration of almost 1,700,000 members of the Commonwealth forces who gave their lives in the two world . The graves and memorials of these men and women, who came from all parts of the Commonwealth and who were of many faiths and of none, are found around the globe at a staggering 23,000 locations, in 154 countries.

The chateau grounds of Zonnebeke’s Passchendaele Memorial Park accommodate the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 and the Zonnebeke Tourist Office. The park is the ideal departure point for an exploratory route along the battlefields of 1917. The themed Memorial Gardens, dedicated to the various nations that fought in Passchendaele, act as places of reflection. The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 presents the story of the First World War in a poignant and vivid way, with a particular emphasis on the . The museum combines the interactive design of a modern museum with the exceptional Dugouts & Trenches experience. All information in this publication is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of going to print. No liability will be accepted for any omissions or inaccuracies. Every effort has been made to trace and contact rights holders.

Publication design by Park Studio.

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