Tyne Cot cemetery, Menin Gate, Belgium

[Budgie.]

On Saturday I head off to Belgium with my class to visit the World War 1 trenches and cemeteries.

 

We visit TyneCot cemetery which has the names and graves of thousands of brave soldiers and we visit the Menin Gate in Ypres where again thousands are remembered.

 

The reason for my post is to ask if there are are any fellow jambos who have relatives remembered there who would like any photographs taken of their relative's graves or name.

 

I feel lucky to have been able to visit these sites and am aware that not everyone gets the chance.

 

If you have a relative you would like me to look for then drop me a PM or post it here and I will do my best to find them for you.

 

(mods/admin - any chance of a sticky on this until Saturday please?)

[grumpy rebus]

I visited the Menin Gate a few years ago and the scale of it was difficult to take in.

[Jambof3tornado]

No requests from me but a very nice thing to offer to do for fellow kickbackers!

[2NaFish]

already been on the 1st world war graves tour and it was genuinely life changing. merkat tours do it and they're well worth it.

[Budgie.]

Bump.

[Maple Leaf]

Good luck with the tour. I think that all British school children should make the trip to the WWI battlefields at some point.

 

I went there in 2004 and it made it lasting impression on me. The enormity of loss of life really sinks in when you see the hundreds of military cemeteries and the seemingly endless rows of white markers.

 

If you have the time, get yourself to Contalmaison. It's a quiet spot, and a wonderful place for reflection on Edinburgh, Hearts, and sacrifice.

[Debtor]

On Passing The New Menin Gate

 

 

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,

the unheroic dead who fed the guns?

Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,-

Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

 

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.

Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;

Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,

The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

 

Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride

'Their name liveth for ever', the Gateway claims.

Was ever an immolation so belied

as these intolerably nameless names?

Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime

Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

 

Siegfried Sassoon

 

Poem Hunter

[Budgie.]

Good luck with the tour. I think that all British school children should make the trip to the WWI battlefields at some point.

 

I went there in 2004 and it made it lasting impression on me. The enormity of loss of life really sinks in when you see the hundreds of military cemeteries and the seemingly endless rows of white markers.

 

If you have the time, get yourself to Contalmaison. It's a quiet spot, and a wonderful place for reflection on Edinburgh, Hearts, and sacrifice.

 

Thanks Maple.

 

Determined to visit Contalmaison at some point.

[Budgie.]

On Passing The New Menin Gate

 

 

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,

the unheroic dead who fed the guns?

Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,-

Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

 

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.

Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;

Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,

The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

 

Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride

'Their name liveth for ever', the Gateway claims.

Was ever an immolation so belied

as these intolerably nameless names?

Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime

Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

 

Siegfried Sassoon

 

Poem Hunter

Powerful stuff!

[Debtor]

Powerful stuff!

 

 

 

Read the rest of his poems.

Sassoon was a strange man in many ways. His war effected him deeply and his cynicism was with him to the end. His homosexuality also had an effect on his attitude to those around him during the war and afterwards. He died in 1967.

[Budgie.]

Read the rest of his poems.

Sassoon was a strange man in many ways. His war effected him deeply and his cynicism was with him to the end. His homosexuality also had an effect on his attitude to those around him during the war and afterwards. He died in 1967.

 

Remeber studying him and Wilfred Owen in Higher English. Always found 'Dulce et decorum est' to be the most powerful war poem. Stirring stuff.

[Budgie.]

Bump

[Tazio]

Read the rest of his poems.

Sassoon was a strange man in many ways. His war effected him deeply and his cynicism was with him to the end. His homosexuality also had an effect on his attitude to those around him during the war and afterwards. He died in 1967.

 

That sounds very different to anything I have ever read about Sassoon.

 

He was a genuine hero and was regarded as beyond brave by the men who served with and for him.

[Budgie.]

That sounds very different to anything I have ever read about Sassoon.

 

He was a genuine hero and was regarded as beyond brave by the men who served with and for him.

 

My only memory from high school of his army career was that he had fought and killed a bunch of Germans singlehandedly. (or something like that!)

[Tazio]

My only memory from high school of his army career was that he had fought and killed a bunch of Germans singlehandedly. (or something like that!)

 

Took a trench on his own. But his claim to fame was his trips into no mans land to rescue wounded soldiers, earning his nickname of Mad Jack from his troops,

[Cabbie754]

Actually ashamed to say I've never been to any WW1 battlefields, memorials or other places of interes but I regularily attend armistace services here. I'll have to make the effort soon.

 

I have read McCrae's Battalion and found it really intersting.

 

Hope you have a intersting visit and I'm impressed with your offer.

[Debtor]

That sounds very different to anything I have ever read about Sassoon.

 

He was a genuine hero and was regarded as beyond brave by the men who served with and for him.

 

 

He was indeed well regarded by those around him. However I was less impressed by his nature when looking at his overall.

[Budgie.]

Bump

[Budgie.]

Bumpety bump bump!

[Budgie.]

Last chance if anybody else is interested in this. Won't be on much before we go away so let me know ASAP.

[Budgie.]

Got back a few hours ago.

 

The kids had a great time and showed great respect to those who have fallen. Received lots of nice comments from tge public who praised them for their behaviour and for the level of interest they took in tge various locations.

 

We started off by going to the Memorial Museum in Paschaendalle (which we had never done before) and it featured a reconstructed underground trench system.

 

Then we moved on to Tyne Cot cemetery which was the scene of a famousbattle between five German soldiers who managed to hold a pillbox against hundreds of Allied troops. The cemetery features the graves of several thousand troops whose remains were found and also thousands of names of those whose bodies were never lain to rest. The five German troops also reside there interestingly.

 

The next stop was Sanctuary Wood which is part of the Hill 62 memorial site. Again lots of relics and interesting sights and it was there in the woods that the pupils were able to go off on their own to have a few quiet minutes alone with their thoughts and to read aloud thank you letters they had written to the honoured dead. Very emotional. We laid poppies and crosses at our chosen tree alongside our crosses from the past three years.

 

Our final stop was to visit the Menin Gate in Ypres where the pupils were able to watch the Last Post ceremony which featured representatives of different army units, veterans and also great grandchildren of those who died leaving wreaths.

 

500,000 lives lost in the space of 100 days. For a five mile gain. Leaves you speechless.

 

It was a fantastic week and helped bring to life a lot of the work we have done in class and the pupils were a credit to themselves and the school.

 

The only downside of the week was that one of our pupils fell ill and was taken into intensive care and has had to remain behind in Belgium. He has been diagnosed as Hyper-glaecemic and without prompt action would have slipped into a coma. His mum has flown over to be with him and we hope he will get home this weekend.

[Debtor]

Sounds a worthwhile trip, apart from the illness of course.

Glad it went well.

[Budgie.]

Sounds a worthwhile trip, apart from the illness of course.

Glad it went well.

 

Cheers bud.

[scots civil war]

anybody who is remotely interested in the great war.....lets not call it ww1

 

should visit the great war forum online.i have gained a lot of knowledge of the war through this portal

 

http://www.1914-1918.net

 

the forum can be accessed via the bottom right paragraph link in the authors notes

 

 

a great depth of knowledge in there

[Debtor]

anybody who is remotely interested in the great war.....lets not call it ww1

 

should visit the great war forum online.i have gained a lot of knowledge of the war through this portal

 

http://www.1914-1918.net

 

the forum can be accessed via the bottom right paragraph link in the authors notes

 

 

a great depth of knowledge in there

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes indeed, one of many good sites.

[J Cheever Loophole]

Got back a few hours ago.

 

The kids had a great time and showed great respect to those who have fallen. Received lots of nice comments from tge public who praised them for their behaviour and for the level of interest they took in tge various locations.

 

We started off by going to the Memorial Museum in Paschaendalle (which we had never done before) and it featured a reconstructed underground trench system.

 

Then we moved on to Tyne Cot cemetery which was the scene of a famousbattle between five German soldiers who managed to hold a pillbox against hundreds of Allied troops. The cemetery features the graves of several thousand troops whose remains were found and also thousands of names of those whose bodies were never lain to rest. The five German troops also reside there interestingly.

 

The next stop was Sanctuary Wood which is part of the Hill 62 memorial site. Again lots of relics and interesting sights and it was there in the woods that the pupils were able to go off on their own to have a few quiet minutes alone with their thoughts and to read aloud thank you letters they had written to the honoured dead. Very emotional. We laid poppies and crosses at our chosen tree alongside our crosses from the past three years.

 

Our final stop was to visit the Menin Gate in Ypres where the pupils were able to watch the Last Post ceremony which featured representatives of different army units, veterans and also great grandchildren of those who died leaving wreaths.

 

500,000 lives lost in the space of 100 days. For a five mile gain. Leaves you speechless.

 

It was a fantastic week and helped bring to life a lot of the work we have done in class and the pupils were a credit to themselves and the school.

 

The only downside of the week was that one of our pupils fell ill and was taken into intensive care and has had to remain behind in Belgium. He has been diagnosed as Hyper-glaecemic and without prompt action would have slipped into a coma. His mum has flown over to be with him and we hope he will get home this weekend.

Just finished reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks,mostly set in the mining warfare of the Somme.It must have been not unlike being in a submarine,forever listening out for signs of the enemy under mining your mine,or waiting for the blast that would entomb you for ever.Brave?Brave doesn't even scratch the surface,no pun intended.