Ok. So my last post was October 6th, a week ago. I'm trying to decide if I would post more often if I had easier access to a computer. I've been lucky so far, but I've moved on to hostels now and it's pretty damn expensive to sit on the computer.
The other important reason is that, well, I've been out enjoying myself! When I've gotten to the end of the day, I can choose sleep or blog...and well sleep wins. But now that I'm in Paris for a few days I thought I would take a moment and try to sum up this past week...might take a few posts but...
Let's go back a bit. We ended up in Ypres, or Ieper as it's spelled in Dutch. Basically it was a 13th century medieval town that was the centre of that area of battle in WW1. I saw some photos of the city just after the war...it was COMPLETELY LEVELED to rubble by shellings. So the town appears old still as they rebuilt it, but the buildings are no older than 90 years at this point. Very cool and picturesque. We did a tour of the Flanders Museum which was partially interactive, and was a good overview of everything that happened. We stayed at the town's 4-star hotel which had tons of photos and uniforms in the lobby. Nice place; though before I go on, there doesn't seem to be any consistency in the pricing of wireless, sometimes it's free...at this hotel they wanted 20 euros for 24 hours...anyways, annoying but whatever. So I wrote my last blog from a free computer there which was nice.
The next day we did a van tour of Flanders. Freakin awesome. Our guide was "Jacques", this really nice and charismatic Dutch guy from a small town nearby. I learned that in Belgium they speak Dutch and French, but the dialect Flemish is spoken only, and varies greatly from east to west...so much so, that Jacques' hometown Poperinge was 7 km from Ieper, and he could tell an accent from someone from Ieper. Ridiculous. In Canada, I can often tell if someone is from Ontario by their accent, but most Canadians never notice. Need an example? Watch "Canada's Worst Driver"; the host has a BRUTAL Ontario accent "Julie was havin' trouble PAIRKIN her CAIR OOTSYDE of the BAIR. She's finding it very HAIRD." You have to hear it to know what I mean. My Grandma has an accent to me but she's also of a different generation and uses certain Britishisms...so it doesn't really count...
So, Jacques knew his shit. Unfortunately I didn't bring the letters on the tour, which I regret, because Jacques was very interested in anything war related and had tons of respect for Canada. He spoke of the position "runner", who like a signalman is not meant to last long. I'll talk a bit more about that later at Vimy. But he also confirmed the story of the crucifixion, in fact that man's name was on the Menin Gate wall, the memorial in Ieper with fallen soldier's names. Went to Essex Farms Cemetery where John McCrae wrote the famous "In Flanders Fields" In fact, he didn't like it at first, threw it away and it was found by an officer and published without his consent. We saw the bunkers where McCrae, a doctor, dressed wounded men. Men would come in and they were in rough shape, they wrote an 'M' on the forehead, for Morphine...=doomed. He also said snipers weren't recognized officially till 1916; until then they would say "death by stray bullets". Really interesting concept to me; the idea that someone so far away could be targeting you out of the mess to kill you. Which is cool to relate to Walt's stories. But as we know, Germans are famous for quality lenses, combined with the fact that shooting for sport has always been popular, so they pulled in all the sport guns and fitted them with scopes for the first time...Allies didn't do this for 2 years. No training given nor acknowledgment of position as sniper. 59% of casualties in WW1 were caused by shrapnel from shells. Hmm.
You can't drive 5 mins in this area without seeing a cemetery. I learned it's a Jewish tradition to put a stone on the gravestone out of respect. Interesting. Many different tombstones, Jews got a star of david (WW1 remember), and the military or Victoria crosses were engraved on those who received them. We then saw Langemarck, the only German cemetery in the area. Contrasting greatly, it's very dark and sombre. There was a large crypt with 25000 bodies buried, and stones with their names. Hitler visited this cemetery at the start of WW2. We then saw St. Juliaan Memorial, a huge stone pillar with a Canadian soldier on top, gun facing down. Very impressive, wait for the pics. The area is called Vancouver Corner actually. I passed thru the fields of Passchendaele as well...all farmland now, but weird to think of the mess of rotting corpses and shrapnel it once was. Farmers dig up old shells and metal bits on a daily basis. Sometimes gas shells, which are still very poisonous.
Went to Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest in the area. Huge. Funny story, Hitler actually saved the Tyne Cot from destruction during WW2, out of respect for the dead. Because the cemetery was in simple memorial, and in no way patriotic, he left it alone. Of course if there were big statues of Allied soldiers etc...it would be gone. So he was a great guy after all! Well ok maybe not...relax, it's not too soon for a joke, it's been 70 years...
We then went to Hill 62, also known as Santuary Wood, where there was still a raw trench you could go in...crazy...there was a British school trip there, not a bad field trip to go on! Really amazing though, lots of old shells and rusty metal shit dug up from the area...it was a cool setting, in the trees of a small forest was a series of zig zagging trenches. I got home and had to rinse the mud off my jeans...but I didn't feel a real reason to complain, somehow...
Moving on to Vimy. Had a great little breakfast in Ieper, home cooked at the hostel. Got yelled at by a cop for driving and taking pics at the same time...a challenge with a manual tranny... :) Hard to read the signage to Vimy but we made it. The memorial is AMAZING. 2 HUGE towers. There are unexploded fields everywhere, craters from shell holes with live ammo. So funny, they put sheep in the field to mow the lawn by eating it, cuz they can't set off the bombs... We went to the trench and tunnel tour. The tour guide, a kid from Ontario was actually really knowledgeable. Thick accent though :P The area was an intricate series of tunnels, the rock was chalk so it dug easily. The soldiers didn't dig, they were labourers who specialized in digging. They would put spikes on their heels and dig in and twist. This kept noise to a minimum too as both sides were listening for digging. They would also set explosives to collapse enemy tunnels...but this was dangerous cuz it could merge both tunnels. Runners worked here. They would live 6 days on average. But there were bonuses: you could sleep underground with the officers, and you could climb ranks quickly. They were well respected. They would have a white armband so that they had priority in the tunnels and people got out of the way when delivering messages. But they were easy to spot and therefore kill too.
Canada took Vimy Ridge in one day, after all other Allied divisions failed. With months of planning of shelling then quick advancement, they succeeded in taking the important ridge. Vimy Park now belongs to Canada and is maintained by the Canadian Govt. It was cool though, a nice French man who was the security guard for the memorial took Grandma around in his car to check out different views of the massive thing. It commemorates the 66,000 Canadians who died in the war.
We had to book it back to Brussels to return the car...didn't take as long as we thought though. Just barely caught the 7:37 pm train that was running late...
I've kept the letters from my Great Grandad...haven't had time to go through them, but if I get a chance before I come home I will talk more about them, if not I'll go over them at home.
Pulled into Paris last friday for the first time in over 7 years....if you could have seen the smile on my face...
Stay tuned...
I remain ever your affectionate friend,
Brendan
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