Battlefields and Football - Part 1 Ferries, Northern France and Ypres

My latest trip abroad was one of these things where everything fell nicely into place. The planning started when England announced a friendly against France in Paris. Now as Paris is my least favourite city in Europe, it was always my intention to spend as little time there as possible. A quick bit of research showed that driving was a far more attractive proposition that driving so I decided to combine it with a bit of a self-drive tour of some of the Western Front battlefield sites. On my return journey, I also managed to arrange a meeting with a company which will probably lead to a new venture for my business (but more of that in a later post).

Easter Monday, 3:30am and I’m woken up by alarm and I have to quietly sneak out of the house without waking up everyone. Thankfully, there was little overnight snow so my car didn’t need too much sorting out before I was en route to Dover for my 7am ferry crossing to Bolougne. Everything went smoothly and I arrived in France as planned and headed off towards my first destination, the V2 rocket complex at Eperlecques. This was one of a number of sites in northern France where the Nazis launched V1 and V2 rockets at Britain in 1944. Eperlecques was the target of a massive air raid which destroyed part of the complex. There is a large chunk of the roof that was blown away plus a number of craters in the woods which can still be seen. Entrance to the site was 7 Euros and wandering round, exploring the site and listening to the commentary will take around 30 minutes.

From there, my next stop was to the area around Wormhoud and Esquelbecq where around 65 British soldiers were massacred by the SS after they were captured during the retreat to Dunkirk. The massacre occurred when the men were moved into a barn and grenades were thrown inside. Survivors were shot although 15 men did escape. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any of the memorials so I moved on to Brandhoek cemetery.

Brandhoek is were Captain Noel Chavasse is buried. Capt Chavasse is one of just 3 men to have been awarded Britain’s highest award for bravery, the Victoria Cross. In addition, he was also awarded the Military Cross. I’m currently reading a book entitled “In Foreign Fields” by Dan Collins and it is about soldiers who have been awarded medals in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you realise what a soldier had to do in order to be award an MC, it really makes you realise what a brave man Capt Chavasse was especially when he was a member of the Royal Medical Corps and never fired a shot during the war. His awards were for rescuing men in danger. Brandhoek is one of the countless little cemeteries in the area. At one point, I stopped at a cemetery on the Somme which was in the middle of a farmers field. I scanned the surrounding countryside and counted another 7 cemeteries. Each of these cemeteries could have anything from 500 to 2,500 men buried there so its not long before you start to appreciate the number of men who died here.

My next stop was close to the village of Passchendaele at the largest British Military Cemetery at Tynecot. More than 12,000 men are buried here. From the cemetery, you can see for a few miles in all directions across fields and it seems hard to imagine the carnage that was there 90 years ago. The visitors centre gives a history of the area and the names of some of the dead and missing are broadcast quietly over speakers.

From Tynecot, I started to head back towards Ypres stopping at Hill 61 (Sanctuary Wood) on the way back. There is a small museum and some preserved trenches here. During my trip, the weather wasn’t kind and although it was nothing like as bad as conditions would have been during World War I, the bottom of the trenches still looking pretty horrible. It cost a few Euros to get in and this was the first place I really started to see the effects of the infamous mud

My next intended stop was the Hooge Crater. As earlier in the day, I struggled to locate it but I did find a small independent museum called the Hooge Crater Museum which had a fascinating collection of artefacts including a British Ambulance and a Victoria Cross. By now it was only about 2pm but the snow was coming down quite hard so I decided enough was enough for the day and headed into Ypres to my hotel. However, my sightseeing for the day wasn’t over as I still have to see the famous Cloth Hall which was all but destroyed (since fully rebuilt) and the Last Post ceremony which is carried out at 8pm every night at the Menin Gate. I always find the Last Post a very haunting and moving thing to listen to. After it was finished, 2 wreaths were laid by young British soldiers and this was followed by a recital from Laurence Binyon’s “For The Fallen”

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The last time I had heard that was at my father’s funeral so it was quite moving for me to hear it again.

Must See Recommendations: Tynecot Military Cemetery, Sanctuary Wood, Last Post at the Menin Gate

Explorer Travel Battlefields – http://www.battlefields.explorertravel.co.uk/

Battlefields and Football - Part 1 Ferries, Northern France and Ypres