84 THE YPRES TIMES The party mustered twenty-eight, including guests, a satisfactory percentage considering the difficult times, and after a dead smooth crossing by the Folkestone- Dunkerque route and breakfast at Skindles Hotel Ypres, we proceeded by motor- coach, via the Dixmude Road and Salvation Corner, to Essex Farm Cemetery the 49th (West Riding) Regimentthen to Bard Cottage Cemetery where the first halt was made. From there we made for Steenstraat to see the magnificent memorial to the French and Belgian troops caught in the gas attack of May, 1915. We then crossed the old front line, where numbers of pill-boxes were in the course of demolition, to Dixmude, the site of the National Memorial to the Flemish dead. Built in red brick, the austere simplicity of the design and the towering height are accentuated by the flatness of the surrounding country. For us it was difficult fully to appreciate the architect's meaning as the design is so unlike anything to which we are accustomed in our own memorials. Probably the significance is purely spiritual and represents to the Flemish Belgians their national unity among the other races. After an examination of the Bloemolen defences the route lay through Beerste and Couckelaere to Leugenboom, where lies the sixteen-inch gun used to bombard Dunkerque. This is still in a good state of preservation in spite of its being fired into the emplacement when it was abandoned. It was cleverly concealed in the far end of a long wood, and it was due to this, and to the extreme range, that our guns were never able to register a direct hit, although on three occasions they placed twelve-inch shells on the edge of the emplacement. Incidentally no allied battery was ever put out of action by this gun. Although its practical value to the enemy was negligible it remains as a superb example of advanced siege-gun practice. Leaving Ostend, where lunch was provided, we followed the coast road through Coq-sur-Mer and Blankenberghe to Zeebrugge where the museum was visited. The ex-Petty Officer R.N. in charge of the museum gave a very lucid explanation of the tactics at the St. George's Day landing. At Bruges the beauty of the architecture always strikes the visitor afresh, but the carillon was disappointing. On the run back a stop was made at the memorial to Capt. Guynemer, the famous pilot who was shot down at Poelcapelle in 1917. On arriving back at Ypres an excellent reunion dinner was served at Skindles Hotel and then our party attended at the Menin Gate to hear the town buglers sound off Last Post." The evening was wound up with a sing-song in the course of which much latent talent was discovered among the members, and we were indebted to the proprietress of Skindles for her charming songs and her unflagging efforts at the piano. At noon on Sunday morning the Resident Chaplain conducted an impressive service at the Menin Gate. This was held in the South Gallery opposite to the names of R.A.M.C. who have no known grave. During Sunday afternoon the party made its way back to Dunkerque, and some of the members stopped at Poperinghe to visit Toe H. The tour was con cluded with an excellent dinner served at the Seamen's Institute, Dunkerque, and so back to London. The time went all too quickly and we remembered that another year must elapse before we should all meet again. It is a truism that the past cannot be recalled, but when old comrades meet it seems to return of its own free will. At the sound of the familiar voices and the clasp of the well- known hands the years drop away and we live again in the imperishable brotherhood of a great endeavour. M.-H.

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1932 | | pagina 22