R.E. Grave Railway Wood, CWGC Cemetery. A Photo Post

R.E. Grave Railway Wood is, as far as I know, the smallest official CWGC cemetery in Belgium. It is quietly situated in farmland and commemorates some Troops killed in the underground war of the tunnels and mines that happened in this part of Belgium. I found it difficult cemetery to photograph but I thought that I would post the pictures anyway. A video post should follow shortly.

for further information try the following links
R.E. Grave CWGC
R.E. Grave Wikipedia

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De Panne Beach 70 years after Operation Dynamo, May 2010

Operation Dynamo AKA The Dunkirk evacuation took place 70 years ago this May. I'm not one for going to too many ceremonies and so I decided to mark the occasion in my own little way, with a walk along one of the beaches that the evacuation took place on. The operation took place on beaches stretching from Dunkirk in France to the Belgian beach at De Panne. I decided to make my little remembrance on the De Panne beach, where I walked from De Panne town beach to just over the French border and back. The weather was not clement and the walk made me wonder what it must have been like there back in the desperate days of 1940 but the numbers of people enjoying the beach, even on a day like that, did make me think that the peace, that the sacrifices of the Second World War gave to Western Europe, is something that we should thank the men and women of that time for.

De Panne Beach 70 years on

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The Last Post at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) Novmber 11th 2009

The field of poppies

I attended the 11 o' clock service at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) today, to commemorate Armistice Day. I do not like to be in the "circus" on the road near the Gate so I observed from the old town walls. The following clip shows the field of poppies on the old walls, by the gate, followed by the last post.

The Last Post

The crowd at the town side of the Gate

Part of the parade at the front side of the Menin Gate

The Belgian War Memorial in Ieper

We will remember them

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Buttes (CWGC) cemetery, July 2009, part three

This is the second clip of Buttes, CWGC cemetery. It is taken from the entrance of the cemetery and is a pan, starting at the chapel and finishes looking at the butte, from within the cemetery. For more info on this area during The Great War (WW1) visit Battle of Polygon Wood and Battle of Passchendaele.

Buttes cemetery entrance and grounds

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Buttes (CWGC) cemetery, July 2009, part two, a photo post

Here are some photographs of Buttes New British Cemetery. Some information links are at the end of the post.

The chapel

The cemetery

The memorial of the Australian 5th Division

From one of the info boards at the cemetery

Battle of Polygon Wood 26 September 1917
Battle of Passchendaele - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CWGC :: Cemetery Details
:: CWGC ::

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Buttes (CWGC) cemetery, July 2009, part one

This will be a three post series, a clip today, photos in part two and then another clip to finish.

Buttes Cemetery (full name Buttes New British Cemetery) is a CWGC cemetery with burials of soldiers from The Great War (WW1).
It is called Buttes because before the war this area was owned by the Belgian army and at one end of the cemetery is a large earth mound or "Butte" which was part of the rifle range that used to be here. This area saw fighting throughout the great war but is most remembered for Battle of Polygon wood, which was part of Battle of Passchendaele.

This clip is from the top or the Butte and includes the Australian 5th division memorial.

Buttes from the Butte

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Lille war memorial and fountain - June 2009

This was not what I was planning to post today but as I sit in front of the computer, in a bit of an angry mood, I found the sound of running water calming and so decided to post this clip now.

For info on Lille visit Office de Tourisme de Lille or Lille - Wikipedia

The town war memorial and a fountain in Lille

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Life going on in the Grand Place, Lille June 2009

Starting off looking down a street at Lille's main town War Memorial (there will be a photo or two of that in the next post), this clip is a pan around the Grand Place in Lille, showing life going on in an normal, weekday sort of way. The next and last post in this little series will show some photographs of this area of the city.

More info about Lille from Office de Tourisme de Lille.

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The South African Memorial, The Somme, September 2008, a photo post

Last year I had the chance to tour the Somme Battlefield in France. I was very impressed by, the recently restored, South African memorial. here are some pictures of the memorial at Delville Wood.

The entrance

The memorial itself

The museum inside the memorial

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Dunkirk September 2008, a photo post

back in September 2008 I had the chance to have a short visit to Dunkirk, in France. Dunkirk is of course famous for Operation Dynamo during World War 2. The town website is available through THIS LINK but this is only available in French. Enjoy my snaps.

Jean Bart

This statue is in the center of the town. It is Jean Bart, who was a privateer and played some part in defeating the English (Boo Hiss), who were threatening the town.

An old boat, under renovation

The Duchesse Anne, in the harbour

The town war memorial

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Gravelines September 2008, a photo post

Last year I had the great pleasure of visiting the lovely French town of Gravelines on the northern coast of France. It is a very beautiful little town with lots of historical sites to see. Here are a few photos from my trip.

(Official town website at Portail Gravelines)

A bridge over the town moat and some of the old town walls

A view from the town walls over the moat, showing the canal to the sea

The war memorial

Entrance to the old fort in the town walls from the old town

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A WWII Belgian War memorial

This is a Belgian second World War memorial that can be found on a quiet country road as you drive away from the small village of Dadizele. It commemorates elements of the Belgian army who took part in actions against the invading German forces in May 1940. I could not get far enough away to do a pan so this is another shaky walk along, showing the battalion insignia.

And this is from the other direction with the image stabilizer on, which I thought I would show you because the image becomes annoyingly distorted (and not that much more stable). This is why I do not intend to use the image stabilizer again, with this camcorder.

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The Menin Gate, fields of poppies, November 2008 a picture post

I go to Ieper often and there will be more on the Menin Gate at a later date. For now I thought that I would finish this little post run off with a picture post of The Fields of Poppies, from November 11th 2008. This was part of the The Poppy Appeal to help raise money for The Royal British Legion.

Each poppy has an individual message from it's sponsor.

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Inside the Menin Gate

This clip really shows the "Warts and all" approach of this vlog. The stabilization feature, on my cheapo little camcorder, distorts the picture very badly, so I don't use it and that makes this clip very shaky indeed. This is a walk from inside the Menin Gate up to the old town walls of Ieper, showing some of the names of the missing carved into the stone, tributes left, the ubiquitous tour group and some guy from the local authority clanging around the crowd control barriers. If you want to view this full screen, it is best viewed in HD.

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The front of the Menin Gate in Ieper Belgium

Hi this is the first post on this blog or more accurately vlog. for more about and what this vlog is about check out the side bar. I thought that I would kick things off with a short clip of the front of the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Ieper, Belgium, unfortunately the light was not on my side and the memorial is in shadow. For more info on the Menin gate CLICK HERE.

The front of the Menin Gate

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