Ypres

[Dave the OAP]

Has anyone just been watching the programme on BBC2 commemorating the battle of pashendale? (Sp?)

It is possibly one of the best things I have ever watched on tv

It drew on passages from letters, interviews and first hand experiences of the soldiers. Music and actors reading passages from letters and diaries.

It projected interviews from the likes of Harry patch on the buildings in Ypres and you could not help to be moved.

Absolutely horrific waste of young lives.

 

[vegster]

I've been to Ypres and looked around the huge WW1 museum and been at the Menin Gate for the Last Post ceremony, very moving it is too. Indeed a tragic waste of lives on both sides, the Germans suffered huge casualties too yet the people who start these wars rarely pay the price.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

Yes i did. Stunning and moving.
I have a real interest in WW1 & 2 but particulary WW1.
The lights depicting all those going up to heaven was amazing.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Incredibly moving program, not ashamed to say there were a few tears.

My Great Grandfather died in the battle and I'd applied for tickets to attend the services happening this weekend but unfortunately didn't get any. Was lucky enough to visit Ypres and the surrounding area last year on a school trip, got to pay my respects to my Great Grandfather at his grave in Tyne Cott. Incredible experience and to be able to share part of my family history with our students was a very rewarding experience.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Missed it, going on iplayer straight away. Been to Ypres many times. when at school in the early 80's I went for the first time, a couple of teachers and 10 boys in the school minibus. A few years later one of the teachers contacted and asked if I wanted to do the trip again as one of the adults as the other teacher had left. I went on a further 5 trips.


since then I've been back many times, the last one 2 months ago.

 

[rocker959]

Never ever forget .

 

[swindonseagull]

Been to Ypres and the sites of WW1 many times ( I am a bit of a WW1 amateur historian) it all started during following up the records of my Grandfather who was at the Somme in the Royal Naval Division.
I try to go to the Somme area a few times per year, in fact last year I took my mother who is 86 and never knew where her father served.

Im going back in Sept and Dec this year, always stay in Arras, Dec will combine Christmas market in Arras with another battlefield walk, This time Vimy Ridge .

 

[vegster]

Incredibly moving program, not ashamed to say there were a few tears.

My Great Grandfather died in the battle and I'd applied for tickets to attend the services happening this weekend but unfortunately didn't get any. Was lucky enough to visit Ypres and the surrounding area last year on a school trip, got to pay my respects to my Great Grandfather at his grave in Tyne Cott. Incredible experience and to be able to share part of my family history with our students was a very rewarding experience.

So many war graves in and around Ypres, I take some small comfort from the fact that the graves are kept in such good condition and that these awful losses are never forgotten, those thousands of tombstones stand as a reminder of the horror and futility of war.

 

[portlock seagull]

Taped it to watch later this week. Anyone never been to Menin Gate at 6pm should. It's sacred ground for us Brits, our Mecca. Everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. Beautifully moving.

 

[theboybilly]

They estimate that there are still over 200,000 unrecovered bodies lying on the Western Front. Many are still being found and modern technology is making identification much easier. I'm so glad my grandad made it through 4 years of warfare for obvious reasons.

 

[Honky Tonx]

I'm heading off to Wacken ( W.O.A ) tomorrow so will stop off. Never ever forget how many brave lives were given up for US.

 

[pastafarian]

Taped it to watch later this week. Anyone never been to Menin Gate at 6pm should. It's sacred ground for us Brits, our Mecca. Everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. Beautifully moving.

Indeed.
I love Ypres, such a great place for a base for a trip to Flanders.
Been twice this year and another trip planned this winter.
Ypres does everything bloody well when it comes to The Great War but they outdid themselves and excelled on Sunday, it was truly amazing the commemoration they laid on in the shadows of the Cloth Hall.
The ending itself was simply jaw dropping, As was pointed out by [MENTION=20]Publius Ovidius[/MENTION] possibly one of the most striking incredible visual scenes I have ever seen on television……real genuine lump to the throat moment.
If anyone hasnt yet been to Ypres, seen the last post at The Menin Gate or visited the wonderful new museum inside the Hall I would highly recommend it.

My great grandfathers brother was killed at Ypres, killed on 11th nov, his name sits proudly on the gate. I have wondered if one day his name along with the others may just drift into obscurity, but when you see “TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE THAT STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918” emblazed across the front of the hall you know remembering the fallen is in safe hands with the good people of Ypres.

If anyone interested the music at the end with the Cloth Hall backdrop and embers floating up was
Benedictus from The Armed Man A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins…….truly a fitting finale.

 

[pastafarian]

Yes i did. Stunning and moving.
I have a real interest in WW1 & 2 but particulary WW1.
The lights depicting all those going up to heaven was amazing.

Its funny how people interpret differently the same image, I had no notion at all the lights rising signified the soldiers going to heaven, I thought the lost were finally rising out of the mud and were now embodied into the soldiers marching past the hall and finally on their way home to their loved ones, fit alive and healthy.
Your version is as good as mine by the way.
Truth is though these poor lads on the gate remain hidden in a field, probably never to be found.
It was though, quite the most astonishing visual image.

 

[Gwylan]

Missed this but shall certainly catch up on iPlayer.

The carnage and losses (on both sides) are simply mind-blowing, it's hard to believe that such slaughter was so recent. Both my grandfathers and one of my g-grandfathers (incredibly as he was in his mid-40s) fought in the war but, luckily for me, all came home safely: respect to those families whose parents and grandparents didn't.

I wish I'd found out more about my grandparents' experiences - all three died when I was young so I didn't get the chance to know about it. But, given the horrors of that war, they may not have wanted to talk anyway.

 

[Hastings gull]

Indeed.
I love Ypres, such a great place for a base for a trip to Flanders.
Been twice this year and another trip planned this winter.
Ypres does everything bloody well when it comes to The Great War but they outdid themselves and excelled on Sunday, it was truly amazing the commemoration they laid on in the shadows of the Cloth Hall.
The ending itself was simply jaw dropping, As was pointed out by [MENTION=20]Publius Ovidius[/MENTION] possibly one of the most striking incredible visual scenes I have ever seen on television……real genuine lump to the throat moment.
If anyone hasnt yet been to Ypres, seen the last post at The Menin Gate or visited the wonderful new museum inside the Hall I would highly recommend it.

My great grandfathers brother was killed at Ypres, killed on 11th nov, his name sits proudly on the gate. I have wondered if one day his name along with the others may just drift into obscurity, but when you see “TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE THAT STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918” emblazed across the front of the hall you know remembering the fallen is in safe hands with the good people of Ypres.

If anyone interested the music at the end with the Cloth Hall backdrop and embers floating up was
Benedictus from The Armed Man A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins…….truly a fitting finale.

Yes, Ypres is a lovely spot, irrespective of the history behind it. We love going there, and the ceremony is brilliant. The restaurants in the town serve dinner early, knowing that the brits want to do the short walk to the ceremony at 8pm. If anyone has not been there, plumb in Varlet farm as a place to stay -very close to the town, and close to a village called . . .Paschendaele. Parking is easy at the farm and you can cycle everywhere easily.Tyne Cot cemetery very close by.

 

[Biscuit]

I've visited Ypres and found it incredibly moving. I'll definitely take the time to watch this programme.

 

[Hillian1]

Did the whole Ypres tour a few years ago now, an incredibly moving experience.

If you’re thinking of going book up with one of the Battlefield Tour companies, we did this and as luck would have it the other group failed to show up so had a personal tour guide for 5 of us.
The tour included Langermark, the German cemetery, and a mahoosive French one, although the name of this escapes me at present.

First stop was where the first gas attack took place, eerily as it was quite early there was fog rolling across the fields at about waist height.

The tour took in one of the craters from the mines under the German lines, the size of which have to be seen to be believed and also a trench system restored to how it would have looked. One bonus of going with a Tour Guide is they get a reduced rate for entering some of the countless museums and places like the Trench System which can get a bit pricey if you’re doing lots in a few days.

Tyne Cot cemetery, where the BBC have been broadcasting from today, is very emotional, it’s bloody huge, the back wall has another 60 odd thousand names on it of soldiers with no known grave, these are the ones they couldn’t fit on the Mennin gate.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Indeed.
I love Ypres, such a great place for a base for a trip to Flanders.
Been twice this year and another trip planned this winter.
Ypres does everything bloody well when it comes to The Great War but they outdid themselves and excelled on Sunday, it was truly amazing the commemoration they laid on in the shadows of the Cloth Hall.
The ending itself was simply jaw dropping, As was pointed out by @<a href="https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/member.php?u=20" target="_blank">Publius Ovidius</a> possibly one of the most striking incredible visual scenes I have ever seen on television……real genuine lump to the throat moment.
If anyone hasnt yet been to Ypres, seen the last post at The Menin Gate or visited the wonderful new museum inside the Hall I would highly recommend it.

My great grandfathers brother was killed at Ypres, killed on 11th nov, his name sits proudly on the gate. I have wondered if one day his name along with the others may just drift into obscurity, but when you see “TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE THAT STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918” emblazed across the front of the hall you know remembering the fallen is in safe hands with the good people of Ypres.

If anyone interested the music at the end with the Cloth Hall backdrop and embers floating up was
Benedictus from The Armed Man A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins…….truly a fitting finale.

I sung the armed man at the royal Albert hall a few years ago. Truly inspiring piece of music dedicated to the people of Kosovo. The is a call to prayer by an Imman , some beautiful pieces , some frankly wierd and one bit where you are in the midst of a battle and you are told to shout and scream .....wonderful piece of music.

If you can sing choral music or in a choir, try and get your choir leader to include this in your repertoire...this is magnificent to sing.



The words are just sublime and very apt after last night programme.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

For those who aren't working, there's a programme on BBC1 now.

 

[crabface]

Its been mentioned by others, but if you have not been to Ypres or Tyne Cot you really should find the time to go. Incredibly moving stuff.

As you walk into Tyne Cot the sheer size of the place is unbelivable, what is also unbelievable is the amount of graves with unkown soldiers not just the back wall.