Travel Tales Excerpt – Mining Savagery in Ypres
The thudding sound ahead of them continued and turned into a sharp crack as whatever digging tools had breached the earth had now exposed the tunnel. The breach brought dim light behind it, indicating that another tunnel team had intersected and crossed Boston’s tunnel. There was a pause in the digging and a few hesitant strikes and probes at the exposure. Boston could see a shadow hand reach through the hole. It was covered in dirt. Henri and Boston held their breaths. Slowly, Boston held up a shovel full of dirt in front of the probing hand. The mound in the shovel was large and heavy, but Boston held it steady. His goal was to block the view of the intruder and fool him into thinking that he had found an air pocket. Henri silently took his shovel and flipped it so that its round back was upward, resembling a bombshell, and held it next to Boston’s shovel of dirt. The foreign hand touched the dirt and then touched the metal. There was a voiced exclamation on the other side, a German voice.
The next few minutes would live as an unforgettable memory for Boston. The German soldiers had not been fooled, but their hesitancy had benefitted Boston and Henri. Boston dropped his shovel, grabbed the arm, and pulled its owner toward him. The German cried out something in German that sounded like, “Alarm!” as he was pulled forward.
– End Excerpt
Ypres and Flanders Field American Cemetery are two places that will forever live in my mind. Both places showed dignity and respect far more easily felt by those who sacrificed themselves than any other places I have ever visited. Both places were destroyed during the First World War. While they had been restored and manicured to near perfection, there was daily evidence of care and respect.
The first stop of the day visit was Flanders Field, the town of Waregem, Belgium, which has the only permanent American World War I cemetery in Belgium. Nearby are a few preserved bunkers and foxholes. In the center of the cemetery is an octagonal-shaped chapel. It is simple in design and ornamentation, but its presence and the established mood are elegantly respectful. The only places where I felt something similar were Washington, DC, at the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial, and only at night.
Ypres is a nearby town in Belgium that is historically elegant yet has a freshly constructed feeling. That is because it was rebuilt right after World War I. In 1919, Ypres was completely destroyed. The restoration councils and national committees had plans to rebuild a modern town, while England’s Winston Churchill was lobbying hard to keep the town in ruins as a more prominent memorial. Our tour guide told us that the surviving townsfolk rejected both plans and wanted their town rebuilt as it was before the war. In the end, the town won.
How the residents managed to get their way is a mystery to me, but tenacity of spirit was the primary factor. That tenacity and/or stubbornness is evident every night at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing. Since 1929, every night at precisely eight o’clock, all traffic is halted while a brief ceremony called the “Last Post” is sounded beneath the gate by the buglers of the Last Post Association in honor of the memory of soldiers who fought and died there. I attended the ceremony, and a poem is read by anyone who is currently military or retired military.
The ceremony has been conducted non-stop since 1929, except during World War II when the occupying Germans prohibited the activity. It was resumed again on September 6, 1944, the first evening of the town’s liberation. That generations of people have cared for a cemetery and preserved a nightly ceremony as a tradition was a profound testimony of the respect and dignity humans can give.Sadly, my visit to Ypres only lasted for a few hours, but its shops, especially its chocolate shops and other shops and restaurants, looked very inviting. There is a World War I museum that is very educational, but after the museum, when I spoke with one shop owner, he told me that there is far more to the town and that I would be a better person to come back for a week. I believe him, and I will return.
