Houthulst

We left Calais and headed northeast to Belgium. Ypres (EE ‘ Preees). Our first stop lead us to the Menen Gate - originally a medieval gate and like many others destroyed multiple times. This gate is where many military fighting in this area walked through on their way to the battlefield. This is now a memorial and has hundreds of names on panels floor to ceiling.
There is a wall surrounding Ypres center, which has been converted to a memorial park where we saw monuments / memorials to the Indian (India), Nepal and Australian military. One needs to remember the “ Sun never sets on the British Empire”. At the time. And those countries all contributed to the war.
Ypres center has been rebuilt in the 1950’s and 1960’s as the entire town was demolished and burned not just in WW1 but again in WW2. This area of Belgium was the main front in WW1 and in WW2 it was the last area for Germany to conquer and get to France and their two main ports in Dunkirk and Calais. Which would allow them access to the English Channel and England.
We then went to Hill 62.
On the 2nd of June, 1916, the Germans launched an attack which gained ground in Sanctuary Wood, took Hill 62 and also Armagh Wood and Mount Sorrel to the south. This was a vantage point as they would be able to see whole battalions behind the line and no man’s land.

We headed to the Sanctuary Museum. This museum is owned and operated by a family for over three generations. The original owner and his wife returned after World War I. As they were clearing the fields and finding remnants of the war, they started storing them in their barn. UK citizens would come by to view the battlefields with their loved ones had perished in this family would frequently take them out on tours of the trenches to see the antiquities and other items that were in the barn. They discovered that giving tours was more lucrative than trying to farm so they developed the idea of a museum.
We toured the museum which started with stereo scopes with original 3d images from WW1.
The collection of guns, helmets, uniforms, medals, photos, ammunition etc was incredible.
Then we walked through a park area with original trenches and tunnels as well as bomb craters. It was raining and muddy and of course 49 degrees but felt like 30 degrees. And our imaginations let us feel what it must’ve been like to be a soldier in those trenches.Read more