Our French Experience: Day 22

Visited Flanders Field Museum situated in the heart of Ypres. The visitor experiences an interactive story of World War I with many visual aids, including audio visuals and artefacts. Australians feature in many of the stories, biographies and battles. Similar the the Titanic exhibition, when you enter the museum you are given an identity of a person who went through the war and at several posts your live their journey. We stayed nearly the whole morning entralled by the original archival films which displayed many battles and scenes of the war.

Lunch was at Le Sword Restaurant and there were eight of us: Our hosts, Christian and Annette, their son, Christoph, two Australians - Helen and Peter and an English gentleman, Jim. A much lighter meal was served today which we were grateful.

Our guide for the afternoon - Annette, took us to see the Tyne Cot Cemetry at Passchendaele. The battle at Passchendaele claimed over 5,000 Australians in 24 hours and is the worst loss of life in any battle for Australia. At Tyne Cot they have recently opened a museum where researchers are able to logon to numerous computers to seek information about soldiers who died in conflict. As none of my ancestors died at the front, we decided to check on Stuart's uncle who died on the Burma railway in the second world war. We were most surprised to read his information and to find out that he is buried in America. He had been with the Americans at the time of capture.

Computer at Tyne Cot

We visited the restored German Trench system at Bayernwald, the 'Messines mines' along the Ridge. This area of woods was captured by German troops in 1914, and during the winter of 1914/15 a system of trenches was constructed in the what the Allies called 'Croonaert Wood', but which the Germans named 'Baynerwald' ('Bavarian Wood') as it was Bavarian units which had first been stationed here. Adolf Hitler had served here in 1914/15, and was awarded an Iron Cross close by, while working as a Company Runner. The walls of the trenches were lined with small tree branches constructed in a basket weave pattern, the floor of the trench was elevated about 6 inches above the bottom to allow for drainage and was lined with large planks cut from trees. This site can only be accessed by guides as it is locked and while we were there a roudy group of teenage, english school children were just leaving.

We visited Messines, the New Zealand Memorial Park, 1914 Christmas Truce field at St Yvon in St.Eloi and the German Cemetery at Langemark. It is sad to see that the Germans were mostly buried in mass graves although headstones do appear in scattered cemeteries, but they are kept well away from the allies.