Flanders, Part 1

When someone mentions the word Flanders, it will no doubt conjure up John McCrae's famous poem from World War 1. It's been running through my head all day as we visited many of the most important monuments and cemeteries here in the Flanders region of Belgium.

Our first stop today was at Hill 62, otherwise known as Sanctuary Wood. Sanctuary Wood was a place slightly behind the front lines where Canadian troops rested before rejoining the battle.  The first photo shows the Government of Canada sign. The second shows the memorial area and the 3rd shows Scott sighting the visitor's log.

Above photos are from the Hill 62 cemetery.

The photos above show a massive crater - the result of an underground explosion. Allied miners tunneled under the German front lines and simultaneously lit 19 explosions up and down the western front. The explosions were heard as far away as London.

The second photo shows some of the land that still has the undeniable scars of battle.

The front line is marked by the markers in the third picture. Blue markers show the allies positions and red markers show the German lines. In this case the German marker was maybe 30 yards away.

More in the next post.