With the British Army in Flanders & France

‘Though poppies grow in Flanders fields’.  And the poppies are no myth, although this tranquil scene, looking west towards the spires of Ypres (Ieper) away on the horizon, would have been one of utter desolation for much of the Great War.  A British trench named simply Trench No. 38 once ran across this field (at the base of Hill 60, behind us in this shot), roughly where we are standing, in effect looking over what would have been the trench parados towards the British rear area, and served as the front line, barring the trenches, shell holes and mine craters on the hill itself that were fought over by both sides throughout the first three years of the war.  ‘At the time we sometimes wondered what it was all for, this attack on what was called a hill but which to us at the time was merely a system of muddy trenches, shell-torn ground, and a haunt of death. The place was practically a cemetery, and hundreds must have been buried on the ground, it proving impossible, when digging trenches, not to disturb some poor fellow in his last long sleep.’ Lieutenant C. W. G. Ince, Adjutant, 2nd Bn. Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. Continue reading →