We set off for the Passchendaele Museum which was a 15 minute drive away.
Approach to Passchendaele
The Battle of Passchendaele was in 1917. During the British offensive from July until November 1917 almost 500,000 soldiers died in the immediate area over a period of just one hundred days, gaining barely eight kilometres.This is a very informative museum set in a beautiful, old chateau. After viewing all the exhibits, photos and film footage you go down into a replica 1917 Dugout. Here you get a feel of the dimensions and the conditions that the men lived and slept in. You then move outside into a replica Trench system. Thoroughly recommend this museum.
Picture slideshow
Video footage of the dug out
From here we moved on to nearby Tyne Cot Cemetery.
Video of approach
Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world. On 4th October 1917, Australian soldiers captured the site where the cemetery now stands and used it as a dressing station. Soldiers who died of their injuries were buried on the spot and a small cemetery was created with approximately 300 graves. Between 1919 & 1921 specialist units called Exhumation Companies brought almost 12,0000 dead to Tyne Cot from the surrounding battlefields. Most of their bodies could not be identified and their graves are marked as @Known unto God’. Tyne Cot Cemetery has a new visitor centre. As you approach the visitor centre and whilst inside the centre itself, a female voice reads out the names and ages of the fallen. It is haunting. There isn’t a huge amount in the visitor centre but a lot of what’s there is truly heart breaking. For example there are letters, addressed to soldiers with chatty,newsy, information in them …. hope this letter finds you well… and then underneath there is the name and date of death of the soldier who the letter was intended for.
Moving out into the cemetery itself, and despite by now having visited a few of these memorials, once again it is hard to grasp the enormity of how many men are buried or commemorated here. The cemetery slopes gently down to the countryside and again there’s just row upon row of white headstones glowing in the sunshine. Lots of the stones are for four, five and even six soldiers of the great war. The lists of names on the walls around seem endless – some of these are here because there was no more room on the Menin Gate. The original German bunkers are here in the cemetery. Another very moving experience.
Slideshow
We went back to the campsite for lunch. After a couple of hours sat in the sun we headed back into Ypres for another mooch around. We then enjoyed a nice meal in the newly opened Captain Cook restaurant near the Menin Gate. We had decided to attend the Last Post again and after our meal we joined the crowd. This time we were further back and at the opposite entrance of the gate. I had thought that the Last Post would be identical each night but it varies.This night there were Australian soldiers laying wreaths, no big choir tonight but the Australian anthem was sung by a small group.
Back to Monty for our last sleep at Jeugdstadion.
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