Woke early this morning, we have a tour of flanders fields which includes many of the world war 1 monuments and cemetaries.  

We started with some breakfast, we just went to the same restaurant on the main square in front of the bell tower.  Breakfast was yogurt for me and Krista had a a croissant with cheese.  We had to head back to the hotel as the tour group was picking us up at 8:50am.  They were prompt and picked us up right on time, we were dropped off at the train station where the tour bus was waiting for us.  There was about 20-25 people on the tour with us.  These folks were from Canada (two others) UK, Australia and the US.

German Cemetery and Memorial
The first stop on in Flanders is at a German cemetary.  There was a lot of respect between the German and Alied troops and each really did respect the others fallen.  This cemetary houses tens of thousands of fallen soldiers.  There were so many that the soldiers were burried standing up with marble plackards on the ground identifying as many as possible.  Those that could not be identified, but were known to have lost their lives in battle have their names listed in a monument just at the entrance of the cemetary.  This is only one of three cemetaries for the German troups in Belgium each of them identifed by the oak trees growing in and amongst the graves.

Canadian Memorial
On we went from this site to the Canadian monument to our fallen.  This is the image that we have all seen, the sole soldier standing head down with hands on an up turned rifle.  Our tour guide is very knowledgeable about WWI, he gave us some history regarding the events of each battle.  Here he talked about how the Canadians stepped up after the first gas attacks by the Germans.  The english were taken by surprise by the first attacks and a large number of troops were either killed or injured leaving a large section of the front line open, the Canadians were tasked with covering the opening and prevented the Germans from taking advantage and pushing through.  It was also a Canadian solidier who studied chemistry that realized that this first gas as chlorine, and that chlorine is water soluable, which meant that many soldiers could survive initially if they took a cloth, sock, or anything that would absorb a liquid like water and place it over their mouth and nose.  They did this, but clean liquid was hard to come by, so many urniated on their socks and use that to cover their face and save their lives.  

The guide was also very fair in revealing that Germany was not the only country to use gas in warfare.  The British also use gas, and actuall use gas first.  Though the gas they used was not fatal, it was iritating, pepper spray.  This was used in the battle in France before Germany had used any gas at all.  So some could say that the British escalated the war by using gas.

Farmers Field:
Next stop on the tour was  to a farmers field.  The reason for this stop was to show us what the farmers in the region are still pulling out of the fields.  Every year they pull out of the ground about 3500 unexploded shells.  The process is typically the farmers pulls out the shell, or grenade or any unexploded ordinance and place them next to the power poles along the road then call the military to come and gather then dispose of the explosive.  Many of these are already duds, but every now and then there are live shells found.  Sometime these live shells cause damage to equipment or to people.  This is all very dangerous.

The other thing found are human remains, about a 3rd of all soldiers who lost their lives in this war were never recovered.  The shells would be so damaging to the human body that it was almost impossible to recover the solider or identify who was killed.

Tyne Cot Cemetery
This is the largest cemetery / memorial to the troops of the commonwealth.  There are 11,968 graves, and a monument with 34,936 names honoring those who could not be identified.  Of the graves 1009 are those for Canadian soldiers, The others are for soldiers from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South African and 4 for German soldiers that were burried here and to respect the graves were not disturbed.  Many of these burrials happened during the war. The site is huge and very well cared for by the Common Wealth War Graves organization.

Australian Memorial/Cemetery
The Australian memorial was erected on a site where the Belgium army used for range practice.  On this site is a huge mound where targets used to be placed and then soldiers would practice firing rifles, target practice.  The mound used to capture the bullets with no harm to anyone.  During the war the Germans captured this site and it over some time and effort was taken back by the Austrialians.  To honor these troops they erected an obelisk on the top of the mound, and at its base is a cemetery. 

Bothers in Arms
Just down from the Australian Memorial/Cemetery, a monument to all those who had more than one family serve at the same time and lost one or more.  This project was started once a soldier was found perfectly preserved during an execavation.  It was found this way because this soldiers bother held him in his arms while he died, then his bother carefully wrapped him and burried him.  Four other soldiers were found in the same grave.  This soldier was identfied because he was so well preserved, and the story behind his burrial was found because his bother was still alive when he was found.  The monument consists of a statue of the bothers, one holding the other as the one held dies.  This was placed at at the end of a 64m marble platform, with two intertwined rings made from reclaimed metal from WWI mounted on a wall on the other end.  The 64m represents the 64 years the surviving bother had to wait to be reunited with his fallen brother.

They also mounted the words from the Dire Straits song 'Bothers in Arms' on a large plackard.

Museum at Hooge Crater
Next stop was for lunch and a vist to a museum.  Lunch was provided, just a simple ham and cheese sandwich, we had to purchase our own drinks and anything else we wanted.  The museum was built on/in the crater.  The crater was created when large number of munitions were exploded in tunnels that were dug under the German positions.  There were 19 of these explosions using over 1,000,000 pounds of explosive.  The museum houses a wide number of items that soldiers would have used during the war.  Everything from razors to slings used to carry munitions, uniforms and an ambulance.  It includes items from both the Alies and the German troops.  They also have a large collection of shells, and weapons.  Also included is an authentic WW1 tri-plane, red-baron style plane.

Hill 60
From the museum we headed to Hill 60.  This hill named so because at the time it was identified at being 60m above sea level.  The story here is that one of the largest underground exposions was set off here creating a crater, a very large crater.  This explosion had killed about 3000 German soldiers almost instantaneously, the shock and the heat generated from this explosion would have incinerated them.

This hill was occupied by German as well as Allied forces during the war, it traded hands a number of times.

The site is well maintained by the Common Wealth War Graves association.

Yorkshire Trench and Dugout
The Yorkshire Trench and Dugout is a recreation on the site of the original trench dug during WWI.  Its current location which was the front line during the war is now in an industrial park, close to a compost plant.  The smell was pungent.

The site was well restored giving visitors the ability to walk within a trench, and get a sense for the size and the conditions that the troops had to face during the war.  The dugout is not accessible, the dugout consists of a number of rooms built out underground, room such as bunk rooms, a command center, a pump room and a carpenters shop.  These were all protected as underground shelters supported by heavy timbers (hence the carpenters shop).  The location and size of each of these rooms was clearly marked on the ground.  These spaces were really quite small, and not enough room for all the troops stationed at one of these, so many of the soldiers had to sleep and rest and prepare for the next engagement out in the trench.  

There were typically three lines of trenches and soldiers were rotated through each of these during their deployment which was a 16 days on and 14 days off.  During the 16 days a number of them were spent in each trench, with the least amount of time in the most forward trench where you likely had the least chance of surviving.

Essex Farm Cemetery
The Essex Farm was a foward field hospital where injured soldiers were triaged, and then cared for before being moved on to the next level of care.  Next level of care being determined by your chances of surviving your injuries.  Many did not few made it beyond this first stage of care.

This is also where Dr. McCrea wrote In Flanders Fields.  There is a larger than normal headstone here dedicated to him and a monument dedicated to the poem.  Our guide, Roland also recited the poem for the group.  He also made note of one grave in particular, that of a soldier that was only 15 years old, indicating that though this was the youngest this war was fought by mostly those in their late teens and early twenties, a generation lost.

Menin Gate
The Menin Gate is a monument which looks much like the Arc de Triumphe, but on this gate are a number of marble plates each etched with the names of fallen soldiers lost in battle.  The gate is currently undergoing a restoration and the entire gate is covered in scaffolding so we couldn't see the gate itself.   One of the main goals we had was to find Krista's great-great uncles name on the gate, what the Common Wealth War Graves society has done is provided an interactive way of finding the names of loved ones.  All of the panels on the gate were scanned prior to the restoration starting, then a digital interactive screen was built and an office created where anyone looking for a name can then go look it up, find the orignal image and take a picture.  Its as if you walked up to the panel on the gate and took a picture.

We did find Kristas' great-great uncle and took the picture.  We also got a few momentos.

The Menin Gate was the last stop on the tour, before returning to Bruges.

The tour was a very informative and a good day to reflect on the sacrafice that these men and women made to fight this war.  The world would have been a different place if they had not.