The King’s Royal Rifle Corps Memorial on Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper) Belgium:-

Last Post at Menin Gate, May 2017:-

For Remembrance Day.

In 2017 we attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ypres (Ieper,) for the second time.

First set of bugle calls:-

Flag lowering:-

End of Ceremony bugle calls:-

Today is Armistice Day, which ended the hostilities of the Great War 106 years ago.

I posted some photos of Duhallow War Cemetery yesterday but today I’m concentrating on the Great War dead. Duhallow contains graves of men from several of the armies involved in that conflict.

The next two photos feature pillars which note the men commemorated there were originally buried in other cemeteries which were destroyed in later battles.

Crescent of Headstones; original burials in Fusilier Wood:-

Line of Headstones; transferred from Malakoff Farm Cemetery:-

I presumed these markers denoted the graves of brothers Privates W & A Barr, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

I found two French graves.

Jules Viard and Jean Carret, both mort pour la France, 24/10/1918:-

And a Belgian grave, of Antoine Vandegam, died 19/10/1918. The photo also shows the graves of Sapper, J Rooney, RE, October, 1918 aged 25 and Serjeant P Hackett, Leinster Regiment, 18/10/1918:-

Star of David headstone for Private S Margolis, Labour Corps, 9/1/1918, aged 24, flanked by Private P Montague, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918 and Private W Middleton, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

Two Germans; Curt Hoyer, Grenadier, 16/10/1918 and Johann Hobelsberger, Private, date of death obscured:-

The front row below is for other German war dead:-

For Remembrance Day.

Duhallow is one of the many War Cemeteries you come upon in and around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium. It lies beside the Diksmuidseweg on the  road designated N369 leading more or less north out of Ypres. In it there lie the remains of 1544 Commonwealth casualties plus 57 graves of other nationalities.

Cemetery from road:-

View from gates:-

Graves:-

One of the graves is of a Second World War soldier, Private D Morrell, Durham Light Infantry, who died on 29/5/1940, aged 21:-

Ypres Town Cemetery sits beside the Menin Road, not far from the Menin Gate in Ieper, (Ypres) Belgium.

It contains a number of Commonwealth War Graves of Great War dead.

I noted that these were all casualties from 1914. They were no doubt interred here since at that time there was no Commonwealth War Graves Commission to oversee the burials and these would have been done on an ad hoc basis. After the war they will have been given the honour of a CWGC headstone.

Reverse view of above:-

Several graves lay close together. Cpt Robert Giffard, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt A A L Stephen, DSO, Scots Guards, 31/10/1914. Cpt & Adjt W H Ferrar, Welch Regiment, 31/10/1914:-

2nd Lt J A Tucker, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt G P Shedden, Royal Garrison Artillery, 31/10/1914. Cpt J F Allen, Loyal North Lancs Regt, 5/11/1914 aged 32:-

Captain Shedden’s grave is unusual in having a separate memorial stone cross behind the CWGC one. This may have been erected by his family before the CWGC headstone and is probably only there because the cemetery is not in the care of the CWGC, where all headstones are the same shape and, beyond wording carved into the bottom of the stone, such individual commemorations are not allowed.

Hill 62 Trenches museum is on Canadalaan near Ypres (Ieper.) I previously posted on its external exhibits and the trenches on Armistice Day.

The first two here are not typical of German commemoration markers.

German Grave Cross:-

German Gravestone (inscribed Fried Her Lander):-

This is in the more usual German commemorative style. German Headstone (inscribed H Langer and F Schrobsdorf):-

German Wooden Memorial:-

Engine Part:-

Model Tanks and Poilu Bugler:-

Mortars, Grenade Launchers Etc:-

Trench Mortars:-

Wartime Poster in support of Serbia:-

Memorial tributes:-

Trench Art Windmill:-

The museum is situated on the Canadalaan off the Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper,) Belgium. I have mentioned Canadalaan before, here and here.

The board describes the museum as a Museum Tranchées (Trenches Museum.)

Two field guns flank the museum’s frontage:-

The museum building contains many relics of the Great War but its main interest is a set of relatively well-preserved trenches to the rear of the building where the trees of Sanctuary Wood have returned.

These supports for barbed wire lean against the back of the building:-

View of Trenches:-

Derelict aero engines and shell craters:-

More craters:-

Trench line:-

More trenches:-

A dugout:-

Trench mortar and trenches:-

Tunnel entrance:-

Part of tunnel:-

Tunnel exit:-

This memorial lies at the end of Canadalaan (see here) and commemorates the efforts of the Canadian Corps in defending the southern parts of the Ypres salient during 1916. Information about the memorial and the battles fought there is here.

The memorial garden lies on a small plateau hidden as you walk up to it by a wall on which is situated this plaque:-

The memorial:-

Approach steps, here seen from the memorial side:-

The inscription round the memorial’s base reads, “HONOUR TO THE CANADIANS WHO ON THE FIELDS OF FLANDERS AND FRANCE FOUGHT IN THE CAUSE OF THE ALLIES WITH SACRIFICE AND DEVOTION.”

The dedication reads, “HERE AT MOUNT SORREL AND ON THE LINE FROM HOOGE TO ST. ELOI THE CANADIAN CORPS FOUGHT IN THE DEFENCE OF YPRES APRIL – AUGUST 1916.”
The memorial lies on Hill 62, though, not on Mount Sorrel:-

Looking east from the memorial:-

Looking south. Such peaceful countryside now:-

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery is one of the many Imperial (later Commonwealth) War Graves Commission cemeteries that lie in the countryside around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium.

It lies near T’Hooghe (Hooge) off the Canadalaan (Canada Lane) itself coming off the Meenseweg (the Menin Road of dreadful memory.) Buried or commemorated in the cemetery are 1,989 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War of whom 1,348 are unidentified. For information about the cemetery see here.

I note from the link that this cemetery is the resting place (in Plot IV. D. 14) of Captain Robert Frederick Balfour, 1st Battalion Scots Guards who died on 28th October 1914, aged 31. He was the son of Edward Balfour, of “Balbirnie,” Markinch, Fife. I live a couple of hundred yards or so from the Balfours’ former home, Balbirnie House.

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery entrance:-

Stone of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice from entrance:-

Information board:-

Graves:-

Graves from south:-

I found one German War grave in the cemetery, Flieg Hauptmann Hans Roser, F Fliegerabt 3, 25/7/1915:-

Just outside Sanctuary Wood Cemetery there is a private memorial in memory of Keith Rae, 2nd Lieutenant, 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, “who died on this spot, 30/7/1915, in his 26th year.” “Also in memory of his brother officers and men who fell on the same morning and afternoon.”

No individual memorials were/are allowed inside Imperial/Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. Whatever their differences in life (not least in military rank) in death it was decided that all should be treated equally, with identical headstones. Apart from name rank, number and their regimental insignia (and a special marking in the shape of that award if the deceased had won a Victoria Cross) only an inscription chosen by the deceased’s family and situated to the bottom of the headstone distinguishes one from another.

I presume this memorial was allowed by the Belgian authorities since it lies beyond Sanctuary Wood Cemetery’s boundaries:-

Just down the Menin Road from Birr Cross Roads Cemetery lies what was once the most dangerous place on Earth. The Great War’s Hellfire Corner is now the site of a roundabout on the outskirts of Ypres.

Like most of the countryside around Ypres it’s relatively peaceful now (apart from traffic) but during the Great War the corner was a cross-roads over which troops going up to the front line of the Menin Road had to pass, running the gauntlet of German artillery zeroed-in on the site.

I found these videos online showing the canvas screens erected to obscure the view of the German observers as well as how the corner looks today:-

The voice-over artist on this one pronounces Hooge (Hooghe) as “Hooj”. I’m sure it’s really “Hoo-gih”:-