Armistice Day in Ypres

Belgium suffered terribly in World War I, and thus November 11th (Armistice Day -- aka Remembrance Day/Veterans Day) is still an important day of commemoration and honor here. Two years ago, we attended the commemoration ceremonies in Brussels, but this year, on the recommendation of friends, we decided to drive out to western Belgium to attend the ceremonies in Ypres (Ieper, in Flemish).

Ypres was all but obliterated during World War I. About five major battles were fought in the town and the nearby countryside, and the surrounding Ypres Salient was the scene of some tragic 'firsts' in the world, including the first use of poison gas as a weapon. The British Commonwealth in particular suffered immense casualties here (there are 137 British WWI cemeteries located in the former battlefields of the Ypres Salient), and it became a place of pilgrimage for veterans and veterans' families. The town eventually rebuilt itself, but never forgot the war.

In 1929 the Anglican Church inaugurated St. George's Memorial Church, and they hold a special Remembrance Day Service each year on November 11th. Because so many people wish to attend the service, visitors must obtain (free) tickets to get a seat in the small chapel. My great-grandfather (Duke Chiasson - 114th Trench Mortar Battery, 39th Division, Army) served in the trenches of France during World War I. Obviously we're not British, but we still thought it would be nice to honor my PaPa by attending the service at St. George's and so I e-mailed about tickets. Given that it was the week of the event, I was not surprised to get a reply that all the tickets had already been allocated. However, it was a lovely surprise to receive an e-mail the day before the service informing me that two tickets had been returned and asking if we would like them. So, we got up at 6am that Thursday (I know, can you believe I did that?!?) and made the 1.5 hour drive to West Flanders. We arrived early, but the church was already packed by the time we found our seats. The little church is very lovely and is completely filled with plaques, flags, banners, medallions, and other memorials to the fallen soldiers in the Great War.





This is the plaque that was on the seat in front of me. We were seated next to a friendly Australian man, a member of the British Legion who has been traveling to Ypres on Armistice Day for the last 20 years. He explained a lot of the medals and bits of history and trivia to us.





Regimental crests decorate the stained glass window above the altar.



Patrick Hawkes, the thoughtful church administrator who set aside the tickets for us, is standing behind Troy. He also took pains to show us the plaque dedicated to American service personnel.





You can see several red spots on people's lapels in this photo. They are artificial poppies, a symbol of the fields of poppies immortalized in John McCrae's iconic poem In Flanders Fields. It is now a tradition for people in the British Commonwealth to wear a "poppy" in their buttonhole during November as a sign of remembrance.



More poppies.



The poem in bronze.



That's me standing outside St. George's after the service. Originally, our plan was to attend the service, then head over to the Menin Gate for the commemorative ceremonies, and finally round out the day with a visit to the Flanders Field American Cemetery. But, as you can guess from this picture, by the time we got out of church the weather had turned bad. So bad, in fact, that we had to reconsider the outdoor portions of our day. Now, we've had our share of poor weather while living in Belgium, but this day was a rare, miserable trifecta of cold, rain, and super strong winds. It was like walking in a cold hurricane. We did stand in the main square long enough to watch some of the ceremonies on the big outdoor screen, including listening to the bagpiper's salute and a ceremonial playing of The Last Post. As you can see in Troy's short film below, hundreds of people braved the wretched weather to watch the ceremony. It was really moving.





This is the rebuilt Cloth Hall. Originally constructed in the 13th century, it was the largest non-ecclesiastical Gothic building in Europe and it served as the hub for Ypres' prosperous cloth trade. (Think Flemish tapestries and linen). The Germans bombarded and torched it during WWI, but it was painstakingly reconstructed after war's end. Now it houses the In Flanders Field Museum, which we visited after the ceremonies.



The Menin Gate is a British War Memorial inscribed with thousands of names of soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. Every night traffic stops around it while a bugler plays The Last Post. The only time this custom has been suspended was during the years of German occupation during World War II.



Here, Troy is standing underneath the Menin Gate arch, in front of dozens of 'poppy' wreaths. Right after I snapped this photo, we happened to run into our friends who recommended Ypres to us. After visiting with them for a minute, though, our resolve against the weather gave out, and we headed home. But we are planning a return visit this summer to visit the trenches and the American cemetery.



Despite the miserable weather, we were both really glad that we made the effort to go. All war is horror, but somehow World War I is particularly tragic and sad to me. Perhaps it is the optimism people felt at having fought 'the war to end all wars', set against the ultimate heartrending futility at having it all start over only 20 years later. What I do know is that it was a poignant day, and it felt good to honor the courage and sacrifice of the service personnel and civilians alike. Requiescat in pace.