A few snaps from our current trip as we approach the end. As usual, an upload to Fickr will follow at some point. From the left: Guillemont, Thieval, Shall at Morval and Trones.

Having recently returned from the battlefields of the Ypres, I can last say I am beginning to feel some understanding for the battles, terrain and geography.  It takes time. I have visiting The Somme for over 30 years and that took time – still does. I remember always wanting to know where the front line was, the points of the compass, get to know the bearings, literally. The Ypres area is much more developed, and the front lines so much less defined. In The Somme, we mostly use bicycles and foot power, both being the perfect form of transport, and around Ypres I can now see that the same is true, though at first glance there is a feeling that the car has to do the hard work. For Ypres I have had to do some reading, which works much better after the visits, supporting the visual and initial exploration.

In a couple of days the bikes get attached to the car and we head off to Longueval, along with books, maps and backpacks.

Can’t wait.

I have just arrived home from four days in Belgium attending the Passchendaele 100 services and events. I have to say what a privilege it was to be included.

The Menin Gate Service on the perfect evening of Sunday 30th August was poignant and moving. The King of the Belgians said in his speech: “And when a fresh breeze whispers through the arches, it touches something inside all of us. It is as if the fallen were telling us: we did this for you.” Later in his speech he said: “The bodies of thousands of soldiers who remained here forever became one with the earth. So your graves on our soil become our graves on your soil.”

There was beautiful music and singing throughout, the laying of wreaths by VIPs and by members of the fantastic National Citizen Service Graduates, and when the poppies were released it seemed entirely suitable that the breeze took them along the Menin Road – the direction to the front line.

After a reception at the Cloth Hall we took our seats for the the entertainment. The participants are well documented and the BBC coverage was excellent but my lasting memory is of the laser images on the the Cloth Hall combined with the voices of the veterans recalling their painful stories.

The Tyne Cot Service on Monday 31st August was well organised considering there were over 4000 people there. Again, the weather was perfect, the situation significant and the words very moving. The first voice from an Australian Officer who simply recalled the sacrifice of an Australian of 45th Battalion, D Company – the same unit as Spencer Parkes, whom I was representing. They must have known each other. Later, I was happy to balance a British legion Memorial Cross alongside Spencer on the Menin Gate. Among the moving readings was a letter from an Unknown German Officer to his mother, and then the laying of flowers on the two German Graves in the cemetery.

Every picture I have every seen of the Battle of Passchendaele depicts mud, death and grey, mud, death and grey – conditions which the 21st century mind finds almost impossible to imagine. But at the Canadian Memorial in the village of Passchendaele (now Passendale), from where I could see what would have been the ‘normal’ area north east towards Roeselare and what would have been the horror of the battlefield to west, there was a deep sense of contrast, of striving inches at a time through sludge to reach the heaven of clean ground.

Click on the picture to link photographs and short videos.

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I am very much looking forward to the Passchendaele Memorial events on 30/31 July. I am lucky enough to hold tickets for the Menin Gate Service and Ypres Square event on Sunday as well as the Tyne Cot Service on Monday. I’m heading out early Sunday morning and staying four days. Cousin Spencer Parkes is commemorated on The Menin Gate even though he was killed on 13th October 1917.

https://passchendaele100.org/ieper-market-square

http://passchendaele2017.org

I’ve been playing with http://rdf.muninn-project.org/TrenchCoordinates.html?q=50.379380,2.774023 to update the co-ordinates from the AIF 4th Btn Diary onto this Google map for cousin Spencer Parkes’ last days, he was D Coy. If you click on the markers there should be some info’. But I am still tempted to buy Linesman maps for this area!

Two books to get into this summer.
Jonathan Porter’s ZERO HOUR Z DAY perfect for our annual trip to The Somme in August – staying in Jonathan’s accommodation.

And Nick Lloyd’s PASSCHENDAELE A NEW HISTORY in preparation for trip to Belgium for the Passchedaele100 Memorial Events at the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot on 30/31 July. #Passchendaele100

Received the agenda for #Passchendaele100 on Friday, looks like being a very special occasion.