CENTENARY CEREMONY IN TYNE COT CEMETERY
BELGIUM
Tyne Cot cemetery near Passchendaele, Belgium is the largest Commonwealth forces cemetery in the world, for any war. Twelve thousand graves hold the physical remains of those who died in First World War battles from 1917-1918, including almost 8,500 who were buried unnamed. The names of 35,000 men whose bodies are still missing are etched in the stone walls. One hundred years ago, these fields from Ypres to Passchendaele witnessed some of the biggest losses of life in the First World War with minimal gains for the front line.
It was here on Oct. 14 that a centenary ceremony was held, organized by the Memorial Museum Passchendaele and the Municipality of Zonnebeke. The event named ‘Silent City meets Living City’ was held to honour and remember the fallen. Twelve thousand white headstones formed a semicircle around a large cross set in a platform built on a former German pillbox (concrete guard post). Behind more than half of these headstones someone stood to remember the dead: a family member, an appreciative Belgian, or a stranger paying homage to their sacrifices.
It was implausibly quiet as we waited for the observance to begin. Row by row we stood holding candle lights as the sun lowered. It was so hushed; not a breath of wind broke the stillness. There wasn’t even a cloud in the sky to detract from the simplicity and calm of the lowering sun. The living city was almost as silent as the dead despite the 7,000 people, including children, from the various Commonwealth countries in attendance.
The observance began with sounds of missiles and gunfire played over the sound system. Vignettes performed by actors dressed as First World War soldiers followed a spell of music and reading. Then the bugle and bagpipes played the Last Post, evoking a moving atmosphere.
Between where we stood and the sunset, green farmland with contented grazing cattle stretched out in a pastoral panorama, but 100 years ago it was a wasteland of mud and blood and firing guns.
To this day, tonnes of metal surface in farmers’ fields.
“We call this the iron harvest,” said Walter Cami, a local First World War expert and president of the Committee of Patriotic Associations in Eeklo, Belgium.
Artillery shells, fuses, mangled rail tracks and even chemical weapons yet to be discharged continue to be purged from the soil. Every now and then the body of someone who fell in battle is discovered. These remains are taken for a proper burial by the War Graves Commission.
Cami is very grateful to the soldiers, especially the Canadians.
“These people from the Commonwealth were volunteers – they did not have to come. The Canadian soldiers were the ones who freed our town of Eeklo and we must never forget them. I am very grateful.”
This is where it gets personal. The war was not just statistics and military strategies and politics. For four long years men, women and horses gave their lives. The people were part of families who suffered the loss of loved ones. Personally, I was there to pay my great respect and represent my own family member: Pte James Peter Robertson VC of Medicine Hat. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy. During the third battle of Ypres, he and the 27th Infantry Battalion Allies were hemmed in by German barbed wire, machine gun fire and mud. It was cold and wet and morale was low. He rushed a machine gun nest and wrestled the gun from several enemy soldiers. This provided advancement for his platoon and some cheer to his comrades at a time when it appeared especially needed. Later, he climbed out of the relative protection of the trench and rescued one, and then another of their wounded snipers. On his return with the second, he was killed. That was Nov. 6, 1917; only four days from the end of that battle.
But our family story is one of many stories of loss. I spoke with a woman from England whose great-great uncle lost his life serving as a chaplain in the war; then the Australian great-great niece of a man who was awarded a military medal for bravery in devising a way to bring wounded back through the oppressive mud in a collapsed creek bed.
“He survived this only to be killed by some random hit in lighter fighting.” She shook her head at the irony.
“My great grandfather came back from the war,” said one man. “He never spoke of it and died when I was 14. I wish he would have lived longer, for me to ask him more about the war.”
I wish they all could have lived. Let’s not forget those whose lives were lost or changed forever, and strive for peace in the future.
Other sites of interest
In Ypres, Belgium, much information is available in the area’s museums and monuments. The Menin Gate Memorial, which was just a bridge in 1913 and on which Allied forces marched to the battlefield, lists names of those still missing. The Flanders Field museum is housed in the Cloth Hall in Ypres, which was reconstructed after the war left it in rubble. St. Georges Church respectfully displays memorial plaques which cover the walls. Even the seat cushions remember the countries and regiments who fought. The nearby Zonnebeke museum has an outstanding depiction of life in the bunkers and trenches of this war.