Our battlefield tour began today near Ypres in Belgium. Back Roads tours provide a guide and a minibus and a program for us to follow the Aussies on the Western Front in WW1, including focus on the battles and lives my relatives faced here.
Walking the earth that has been soaked in so much blood, seeing the lie of the land that was fought over with such enormous loss of life, and visiting the grave of an ancestor who was wounded in battle and died in a field hospital, was very emotional. After placing a flag and message at the grave of our Great Great Uncle, I found it so sad to walk away and leave him there in the loneliness of a foreign country although surrounded by thousands of other young men suffering the same fate so far from home.
The ceremony conducted at the Menen Gate was also very sobering, with the inscription of more than 70000 names of men who were killed in just a few short months. The last post, the reading of the history of just one of these men and the laying of wreathes by school children and loved ones, were witnessed by more than 300 people, even though it was a cold winters night. Volunteers organise the service, the local fire brigade provided 4 buglers, the road through the gate is closed, and the men who have died with no known grave are remembered ... Every single night of every single year. What a beautiful way to respect the memories of those who gave their all, and most of those young men from foreign lands.
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