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Day Four: Essex Farm Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium
The Essex Farm Cemetery contains the graves of 1,100 soldiers from the First World War. This cemetery has the sad distinction of containg the grave of one of the youngest British soldiers to die in action, Rifleman Valentine Joe Strudwick who was just 15 years old when he died on 14th January 1916.
The Essex Farm Cemetery is most famous for being the location where John McCrae wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Fields".
In Flanders Fields - John McCrae
McCrae fought in the second battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium where the German army launched one of the first chemical attacks in the history of war. They attacked the Canadian position with chlorine gas on April 22, 1915, but were unable to break through the Canadian line which held for over two weeks.
In a letter written to his mother, McCrae described the battle as a "nightmare": "For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds ..... And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way." Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance.
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."
Read the full story at Wikipedia
Thank You NLVC!
Our visit to the "Essex Farm Cemetary" near Ypres has been sponsored thanks to a $500 donation from NLVC!
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