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EMPIRE TEA ROOM,
The Ypres Times.
21»
Fleurbaix, Neüve Chapelle, La Bassée, Hohenzollern Redoubt, Loos, Lens, Vimy Ridge, returning
via Souehez, Xoeux-les-Mines, Béthune, St. Venant, Hazebiouck, Poperinghe, arriving at Ypres
7.30 p.m. This trip was most enjoyable in spite of a few heavy thunder showers which damped the
clothes, but not the enthusiasm or interest of the party!
At 10.30 on Monday morning two battalions of Essex cadets, numbering 1,260, arrived by train
from Brussels under the command of Brig.-General R. Colvin, C.B., and proceeded by the vicinal
railway to Clapham Junction, where the unveiling ceremony of the 18th Division war memorial was
performed at 11 a.m. In the afternoon a final tour was arranged to La Civile Locre, Bailleul,
Xieppe, Armentières, Ploegsteert Wood, Hyde Park Corner, Messines Ridge, Wytschaete and St. Eloi
Mine Craters.
Members of the party who had not visited Ypres for several years were loud in their astonishment
at the rapid restoration of the town. Little now remains to remind those who fought in its defence
of the devastated area which they knew as Ypres." But in spite of the lapse of time and the altered
aspect of the' ground, memories of war seemed of yesterday. The countryside, although a new
spectacle, still strangely retains an atmosphere which only our hearts can describe.
The pilgrimage was due to return on the morning of August the 4th, but some of the patty elected
to prolong their stay at Ypres or to visit other places in the neighbourhood, so it was depleted numbers-
that started at 9.30 a.m., homeward bound. Once again we were favoured by a smooth crossing.
On arrival at Dover the pilgrimage dispersed as a unit, each finding his own seat at will in the train
which was waiting to convey us back to the London terminus, from whence we had set out. Xone of
us, I feel sure, made the journey home without remembering with gratitude the great trouble taken
by Captain Parminter to make the pilgrimage a success. Our best thanks are also extended to the
hotel proprietors who gave us individually every possible attention and comfort on this memorable
occasion.
GOING OVER.
Shell and shrapnel filled the air,
Thundered guns, and splinter'd flare,
Platoon attacks at daybreak!
Curses, groans, expectations make
The glorious din, a bloody glare
Barbed wire shivers in the flashlight,
No-Man's-Land that naked stare
Stretches 'tween us and Over there."
Goodbyes are whispered,
Threats and boisterous promises share,-
Set jaws, drawn faces, nervous eyes,
Mix with the madman's vacant stare,
Mudded khaki, steel hats, matted hair,
Harmonious with the dull, long steel,
Makes a picture clearTragedy's Wheel,
Waiting for the Phantom's Hand to turn
It in a shrieking whirl, to spurn,
The soldier's lot.
The Officer contracts his fervent lip,
The whistle cries, like a Spectre fillip,
Trenches bristle with dulled, uneven steelj
Already some are seen to reel.
Scores of faces, flushed, or pale,
Peer o'er the parapet, as from a veil
It seem'd the sky in Fury vommits,
The Hows roar heavy, the Hell-gun
spits
To the long, lone horizon, gleamin' red,
ForwardHeeding not the grinning dead
A hundred voices shriek, and yell,
As over they pour, over the knell,
Every heart, every pulse beating violence,
Across No-Man's-Land amidst the
ROARING SILENCE.
Ralph Whyte,
September, 1925.
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6, RUE de STUERS,
next Church of St. Nicholas just being rebuilt
halfway between Station the Grand Place-
Also BED AND BREAKFAST.
English Proprietor
MEMBER ok YPRES LEAGUE.
