{"id":8762,"date":"2024-08-08T19:20:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T18:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=8762"},"modified":"2024-08-09T19:37:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T18:37:11","slug":"day-4-ypres-war-memorials-pt2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/day-4-ypres-war-memorials-pt2\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4 – Ypres War Memorials pt2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today was another day of visiting the Belgian War Memorials around Ypres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In numbers, very stark numbers, 200,000 Commonwealth men (it\u2019s almost exclusively men) lost their lives in the 1914-1918 war in Belgium. A further 500,000 were lost in France and of all those 700,000\u2026 300,000 have never been found, let alone a name put to a body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started the 2nd day of Cemeteries and Memorials by heading to Buttes and Polygon Wood, and then in the afternoon onto Tyne Cot .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole round trip took us about 6 hours, with a coffee stop in Zonnebeke, and about 11 miles of biking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cycling in this region is a doddle\u2026 flat landscape, well delineated cycle sections on the roads and even dedicated cycle ways off the main road network. care needs to be taken when you encounter the be-whistled cycle clubs though. They hurtle down the cycle paths but snap into single file at the sound of the leader\u2019s whistle! Hilarious!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brothers in Arms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just before we got to the Buttes and Polygon Wood sites, we came across the Brothers in Arms Memorial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems to have been inspired by the Dire Straits song of the same name with a very poignant statue set in a field depicting two soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Set at the end of a pier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Clearly depicting one fallen soldier being looked after by a second<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brothers in Arms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scotts Bunker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We actually came into the Buttes site through the woods and so took a slight detour to see Scotts Bunker. Still standing, but not for want of trying. They\u2019d used the bunker as a dump for still live munitions after the war and repeatedly detonated the dump to get rid of them, but the bunker remained mostly intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scotts Bunker 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Scotts Bunker 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buttes War and Polygon Wood Memorial and Cemetery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We approached the Buttes site from the unconventional direction of the woods (the guy in the Ypres CWWGC office recommended this).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Buttes War Memorial and Cemetery from the woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The scale of these places is so tragic. So many lives lost. We wandered around both the Buttes Memorial site and the site just outside the wood that is dedicated to the New Zealanders that fell in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
So many graves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Many Australians in this Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
View from Buttes site to Polygon Wood Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Polygon Wood has fields to the side and the wood in front<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After wandering the site for probably 45 minutes, it was time for a bit of lunch at the Buttes site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw just a few other visitors at the site and the peacefulness and serenity seemed fitting for such a sombre place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyne Cot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As if we hadn\u2019t had enough of the epic\u2019ness of all these memorials, we headed to Tyne Cot for the afternoon, after a quick coffee in Zonnebeke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyne Cot is the largest of the CWWGC cemeteries and memorials. There are 12,000 servicemen buried in the graveyard and 35,000 memorialized on the panels surrounding the top of the site. It\u2019s very difficult to get your head around the scale of what\u2019s presented in front of you as you wander from the visitor\u2019s centre to the bottom of the cemetery. The memorials are so peaceful, and I think the only way to appreciate them is to stand in front of it all for a few quiet minutes and imagine the horror, pain, grief and loss of it all. Such a devastating waste of life. Absolutely, for something noble and selfless, but none the less such a waste of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 30% of the graves carry names, with the remainder often just carrying the inscription \u201cKnown unto God\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wandered the cemetery with many other people, taking in the solemnity of the site. We searched for some family names, Heyes (4 on this site), Martin (many many on the site) and Franklin. As we walked the panels, we sought out the 4 Heyes\u2019 remembered there. There were Martin\u2019s everywhere, who knows how closely they may have been related?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tyne Cot Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Tyne Cot Cemetery 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tyne Cot Cemetery 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so after another sombre day we headed back to the campsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way we stopped at a small hotel next to our campsite. In the garden was a walk around some (possibly) fake trenches. But the pond was the remnants of the Hooge Crater we saw all about at the museum the previous day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hooge Crater walk 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hooge Crater walk 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Hooge Crater – shell remnents <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And that was it for another day. We\u2019re leaving this area tomorrow, but so glad we stopped and spent some time here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was another day of visiting the Belgian War Memorials around Ypres. In numbers, very stark numbers, 200,000 Commonwealth men (it\u2019s almost exclusively men) lost their lives in the 1914-1918 war in Belgium. A further 500,000 were lost in France and of all those 700,000\u2026 300,000 have never been found, let alone a name put […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-summer-holiday-to-greece","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/746a0209-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2hk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8739,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/day-3-memorials-around-ypres-pt1\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":0},"title":"Day 3 – Memorials Around Ypres pt1","author":"John Martin","date":"August 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s been a poignant day today. We\u2019ve spent the day cycling around the memorial graveyards to the east of Ypres. The campsite we\u2019re staying at is a two minute cycle ride from the Hooge Crater Museum and Memorial. The Hooge Crater was created early WWI when the allies dug a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5096.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8781,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/09\/day-5-travel-day-ypres-to-charleroi\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":1},"title":"Day 5 – Travel Day, Ypres to Charleroi","author":"John Martin","date":"August 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"So the day was a perfect travel day. Grey and just sort of thinking about drizzling as we put our stuff away. But before we left the Ypres area we had to do one more cemetery and memorial - Essex Farm, to the north of Ypres. Essex Farm is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5188.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8717,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/06\/day-2-northants-to-ypres\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":2},"title":"Day 2 – Northants to Ypres","author":"John Martin","date":"August 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today has been a travel day. We set off from Northamptonshire at about 10, Chunnel at 15:30 and set up camp by 18:30. A pretty uneventful day, drizzling until we got past the bottom of the M11 but beautiful now here in Belgium as we sit with a beverage. Thurrock\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5074.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8708,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/05\/day-1-still-in-the-uk\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":3},"title":"Day 1 – Still in the UK","author":"John Martin","date":"August 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, so this is a bit of a cheat. We\u2019re still in the UK. We\u2019re taking the opportunity to swing by my (John\u2019s) parent in Northamptonshire for a night, before we head off properly on the trip. But we have started and we are fully packed, except for the stuff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10470,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/day-65-home-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":4},"title":"Day 65 – Home Again","author":"John Martin","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"And so our mini adventure ends. There\u2019s not much to say about the day itself and I\u2019ll leave the conclusions to further posts where I hope to pull some more considered thoughts together about the trip. However, for today, we did manage to get off from our one night stop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9040,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/20\/day-16-munich\/","url_meta":{"origin":8762,"position":5},"title":"Day 16 – Munich","author":"John Martin","date":"August 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"After a decent night\u2019s sleep holed up in the Munich Arrabella Park Best Western, we could properly attack Munich. 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