Ypres

Sunday 12th September

Lille is in Flanders, close to the border with Belgium and Ypres, which was the centre of some of the fiercest and most futile fighting of WWI.Some preliminary searching revealed that John has a relation who fought and died at Ypres. So on Sunday 12th September, we hired a car and drove into Belgium, probably the first members of the family in nearly 100 years to visit.

Ypres(pronounced Eeepray)is the French (and most widely used) name of the town. Locally, it is now known by the Belgium name Ieper (Eeeper).The allied soldiers couldn't manage either and called it "Wipers". It was an extremely wealthy city in the Middle Ages being a centre of the cloth trade.Ypres was almost totally destroyed during the 4 year bombardment of WWI, but much of the orginal gothic artchitecture has been reconstructed. There was very little remaining of the 12thC Cloth Hall in 1918. 

Cloth Hall; Ypres 1918

Cloth Hall, Ieper, Belgium, 12th September 2010

Rebuilding began in 1922 and was completed in 1968. Today, the Cloth Hall is an exact replica of its original Medieval glory and is World Heritage listed. Impressive as the Cloth House is, we were there to find a memorial to a fallen soildier.

Lance Corporal George Allen Grandfield

Born:                                        Lilydale, Tasmania(Australia)
Age at enlistment:                  20 years and 3 months
Enlisted:                                  14th August 1915
Reported for duty:                  24th August 1915
Departure from Tasmania:   19th October 1915
Date of Departure Aus:         26th November 1915
Service Number:                    3330
Australian Infantry Forces:     AIF
Date of Death:                        25th September 1917
Memorial:                                Ypres – Menin Gate
Medals:                                   1914‐15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Rate of Pay:                            5 shillings per day of which 4 were paid to his mother

Private Grandfield was originally assigned to 24th Battalion, 7th reinforcements and embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT A73 Commonwealth on 26th November 1915, bound for Egypt. He was reassigned to 57th Battalion, 15th Brigade, 5th Division, “D” company. The 57th Battalion was composed of 50% of 5th Battalion (what was left from those who had served at Gallipoli) plus new ANZAC, Indian and Norwegian recruits; Companies A and;B were soldiers from suburban Melbourne, Company C (soldiers from rural Victoria), Company D were the rest, from other States (including Tasmania), plus men from India, New Zealand, New Guinea the UK and Norway. Many did not have rifles upon arrival at camp in Egypt; those that did had the wrong ammunition which was returned to stores. Training was hampered by problems with supply (water and munitions) and by an outbreak of mumps which affected most of the recruits. After training, the 57th were posted to active duty on the Western Front in France.

57th Battalion AIF: Western Front Service
1st July – 18th November 1916: Somme
19th‐20th July 1916: Fromelles
[5,533 Australian casualties at Fromelles from the 5th Div.]
3rd May – 17th May 1917: Bullecourt
31st July‐1st November 1917: Ypres (3rd Battle)

Menin Road: Hellfire Corner, 1917

Menin Road, Hellfire Corner, 12th September 2010 (picture won't load!!!)

20th‐25th September 1917:
Lance Corporal Grandfield was killed in action on 25th September 1917, somewhere near Hellfire Corner, on the Menin Road. His body was not recovered and his grave is unknown.
 

Allied Troop Dispositions; Western Front 20th-26th Spetember 2010

On 26th September, the 57th Battalion moved on to fight at Passchendale, where 63% of them were either killed or wounded. The 57th Battalion daily diary has been digitised and can be read here.

330,000 Australian soldiers served in WWI, 61,513 were killed, 9% of all Australian casualties were inflicted in one day at Fromelles. Of the 57th Battalion, 505 were killed, 1253 were wounded. 

Menin Gate, Ypres, 1918

After the war, a memorial was errected at Menin Gate. It lists the 54,349 Commonwealth soldiers killed in Ypres whose graves are unknown. Lance Corporal Grandfield's name is listed among the fallen.

Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres 12th September 2010



In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

(Major John McCrae, M.D - Canadian Army, 1915)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 

And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. 
 

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling, 

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 

Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory, 

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 

Pro patria mori.

[Wilfred Owen, October 1917]

[Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country]  

The Last Post is played at Menin Gate Memorial every evening at 8pm. The cermemony has been performed every day since 1927.