Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Seven – Menen Communal Cemetery – Updated 2023

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Magicfingers

Our final stop along this short stretch of the river is the communal cemetery in the town of Menen (yes, this was once called Menin, and yes, if you head north west from here some eleven miles you will find yourself at the Menin Gate in Ieper).

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Six – Geluwe War Memorial & William Thomas Leggett Memorial

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Magicfingers

Geluwe, like the other towns we have visited, was occupied by the Germans for most of the First World War, and, again like the others, was totally destroyed during the course of it.

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Five – Wervik Communal Cemetery

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Magicfingers

Curious places, these communal cemeteries, at least to an English eye.  Every shade of grey that you could wish for, and very little green.

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Four – Wervicq-Sud War Memorial

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Magicfingers

South of the river, in Wervicq-Sud, this French memorial mourns the dead of two World Wars.

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Three – Wervik War Memorial

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Magicfingers

Following the Lys north east, after a couple of miles we arrive in Wervik, another town that, like Comines, straddles the river.  This is the war memorial in the northern, Belgian part of Wervik, and like all of these memorials along the Franco-Belgian border, it commemorates both military and civilian casualties from both World Wars.

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part Two – Comines Communal Cemetery

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Magicfingers

North of the river, in the Belgian section of Comines, the Commonwealth Plot in Comines Communal Cemetery bears witness to the severity of the now largely-forgotten fighting that took place in the vicinity in late May 1940.  During the subsequent German occupation, one hundred men, all but five of them identified, were brought in from isolated burials in the area and buried here by the local inhabitants in back-to-back graves.

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Along the River Lys: The Franco-Belgian Border Part One – Comines War Memorial

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Magicfingers

From just west of the town of Menen, some ten miles south east of Ypres (Ieper), the River Leie (better known to those with an interest in the First World War by its French name, the River Lys) forms the border between France and Belgium for approximately fifteen miles.  The towns we shall visit along this stretch of the river were under German occupation for much of the First World War, as well as seeing heavy fighting towards the end of May 1940, as the B.E.F. attempted to prevent the Germans crossing the river during the retreat to Dunkirk.

Picture the scene.  It’s November, it’s late at night, and it’s cold.  Very cold.  And me and the missus are standing in a darkened, deserted square in Comines (the French bit, south of the river) peering at the occasional passing car wondering why Baldrick isn’t driving it.  However, every cloud, and all that.  In front of the bell tower of the Church of St. Chrysole, to the east of the square, stands Comines War Memorial, and as I’ve got the camera with me, why waste the opportunity?

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