Rob and I rose early and went to the Charles de Gaulle airport where we rented a Toyota C-HR Hybrid. First of all, the door handles were hard to locate as they were near the top of the back doors. We got in the car and tried to turn it on but we couldn’t. We tried several times. Then we realized that it was on, but we just couldn’t hear it.
While we were trying to figure out how to turn on the car, we discovered that the dashboard instructions were in German. We got that changed to English and were cautiously on our way. It started to rain and the wipers came on automatically and vice versa when the rain stopped. I think that the wipers are smarter than we are!!
While so many of us love them, others hate them, which could be due to the specific gene TAS2R38, otherwise known as the ‘Brussels sprouts gene’ which regulates bitterness perception.
We arrived in Ypres. American WWI soldiers called the town, Wipers. There was much death and destruction here. WWI was never called that until WWII. It was called The Great War and was to be the war that ends all wars.
Similarly The Battle of Ypres eventually became the First Battle of Ypres as there were five battles here with over one million casualties.
In the early 20th century the armament industry produced many thousands of machine-guns. Weapons had now become more important than troops numbers. They were simpler to operate than a rapid rifle. Also, three men and a machine-gun could quite easily hold up an entire oncoming battalion.
Between 1914 and 1918 the artillery had a greater range than ever before. Soldiers could be situated a good distance behind the lines. Shells could be fired rapidly and accurately. These advances made it the deadliest weapon in trench warfare. If a shell exploded directly above the surface and hundreds of shrapnel bullets and metal shards flew off in all directions, soldiers could be literally torn apart, “blown to bits”. The many unexploded shells continue to yield an “iron harvest” even today, an increasingly dangerous situation for farmers and builders.
Trench warfare had laid waste to vast areas of land on both sides of the Front. The war had caused millions of deaths. But the pain lingered in the broken bodies and minds of those who lived on. The First World War created a realisation of the need to care for the maimed and mutilated, the mentally traumatised, the limbless ex-servicemen and the Gueules cassées (broken faces). These damaged bodies became the face of what war does to people.
Rob had researched a road to see significant WWI battle sites and cemeteries as we left Ypres. We could not locate most of them but saw others not on our list. Every farm had a cemetery.
Flanders Field American Cemetery
“We leave you our deaths: Give them their meaning.” Brother of one of the fallen buried in Flanders Field American Cemetery
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Hosea 13:14
When the November 11, 1918, Armistice ended combat operations in World War I, about 2,400 temporary burial sites held more than 77,000 American war dead. In accordance with the wishes of their next of kin, the government buried nearly 31,000 Americans overseas alongside their fallen comrades. They were laid to rest in eight memorial cemeteries maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
More than 180,000 Americans fought in the Ypres area of Belgium. The four US divisions suffered over 4,700 casualties. At the war’s end, most of the bodies of fallen soldiers were brought home at the family’s request. Some of them were laid to rest in an overseas cemetery.
The Flanders Field American Cemetery holds the remains of 368 of these Americans. It serves as a place to remember the sacrifices of all who served.
We walked around the immaculate cemetery with pristine white crosses. It was dusk and then Taps began to play. It was a most fitting end to the day.
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