A Son of the Rock

Almost the first thing we did after checking in to our hotel just 3 kilometres from Ypres was to visit Hooge Crater Cemetery which was literally just the other side of the Menin Road, and lies immediately below the Bellewaerde ridge. The circular area surrounding the cross represents the area’s many craters created by mines.

The first graves we came up to are dedicated to men either known or believed to be buried in this cemetery but whose exact grave location is unknown:-

One known soldier of the Great War and two who are in Kipling’s memorable phrase “Known Unto God”:

A memorial stone to men whose previously known graves were destroyed in subsequent battles:-

As in all Commonwealth War Cemeteries the graves are beautifully kept:-

The gravestones with regimental insignia on them are for individuals. The ones to the front here commemorate respectively five, five, five, five and four soldiers “Known unto God”:-

Grave Panorama. There are now 5916 Commonwealth soldiers buried in this cemetery of whom 3,570 are unidentified.

As the inscription on the alcove where the register of graves is kept says the cemetery is the free gift of the Belgian people for those who fell:-

The now peaceful scene looking back over the cemetery boundary into what was the Ypres Salient:-