Ypres

I have a friend who has done several of these trips and has enjoyed them a great deal , learn"t a lot also . However , she away at the moment on another sort of trip so I can"t get hold of her for any info. This post really to tell you that they are GOOD , so hope you get to go and enjoy

Ypres is amazing and very, very moving. If you are driving, keep an eye open for the brown (I think) signs indicating British war cemeteries, and stop for a while. Sometimes, by the gate, there is a little place where a visitors' book is kept, and they are well worth looking at too.

I used to find that GCSE history websites were useful when I taught WW1 poetry - just gave me a clear background.

I visited several war cemeteries when I was working in Brussels - they are almost unbearably moving, especially when you read the ages of the dead.
I read 'All quiet on the Western Front' and I am bracing myself to read 'Birdsong'. The sufferings of the soldiers on both sides are unimaginable.

Have you read the Pat Barker "Regeneration" trilogy, Greatnan? Wonderful, moving books.

No, but I will get them on Amazon.fr. Thank you for the recommendation.

Oh, and - might be useful, yogagran a trilogy by John Masters, "Loss of Eden" is a very good story, based in a village in Kent and all the families there, from before the war, and through it. I love to read a story and learn as I go!

For detailed history of the First World War, I don't think you can beat the wonderful Lyn MacDonald. She goes through the conflict year by year and there is also the "Roses of No Man's Land" which is about the nurses in the field hospitals. The one for Ypres would be "They Called it Passchendaele". She uses a lot of personal testimony. Fascinating, moving, but not a light read.
"Goodbye to All That" by Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" and Frank Richard's "Old Soldiers Never Die" are other favourite autobiographical accounts.

Yogagran, you might bump into my DH as he and a chum are also going to the same places, I will ask him what books he has been reading in case they help too.

Green Commonwealth War Grave Commission signs are all over the area you plan to visit. Unless a cemetery is very small there will be a Visitors Book by the gate and an explanation, usually in bronze of what happened there.

As well as the Lynn MacDonald I'd suggest Major and Mrs.Holt's Battlefield Guide to Ypres Salient by Tonie Holt and Valmai Holt. This is an invaluable guide for anyone looking to tour the battlefields of Flanders. A useful, if brief, intoduction to the history of the battles, lots of practical suggestions, a pull-out map. Great colour photography and pocket sized at A5. My copy is VERY well worn!

The Museum of Peace in Ypres is moving too,

Look up the author Paul Reed, he has excellent books on the WW1 Battlefields, DH was recommended to buy some. Enjoy your visit, I am sure it will be very moving.
I too found Pat Barker's Trilogy and Birdsong very moving books.

I loved Pat Barker but disliked Birdsong.

We've visited Ypres twice, yogagran. It's a lovely town and when you discover what devastation it suffered and how it was rebuilt eg the Cloth Hall, it takes your breath away. The War Cemeteries are everywhere - even little tiny ones can be found in fields. We also visited the Lochnagar crater, which is just above Ypres. As you'll know each evening at 8pm the Last Post is sounded at the Menin Gate by the town's firemen, and this has taken place since the end of WW1. To stand there listening to the Last Post and looking at 72 thousand names inscribed on the walls of the Menin Gate - and these are only the names of those not found.....it cannot fail to touch you. Passendaele (sorry about spelling) has to be seen to be believed. We mean to go back. Lyn Macdonald's 'Somme', and Nigel Jones' 'The War Walk' are very good and informative books.

Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
agree absolutely with green re Last Post. The missing came from all corners of the empire.
When we drove there we were v confused cos it is called something like Leper locally.

JessM, I know what you mean about the name! Was it not 'Ieper' that was on the signposts, but it looked like 'Leper'? My pedantic (though well-informed) neighbour always pronounces it Yaper.....he's done lots of research on the area, and was a very good guide for us when we all went there.

The Tommies called it Wipers.

My grandfather was at Passchendaele.

Annobel I prefer "Regeneration"too.

It's the names on the Menin Gate that get you, they go on, and on, and on. All those young men.

It's name is IEPER, pronounced EEPER.
It is the proper name in Flemish.
Ypres is the French version.

Thank you johanna.

That's a wonderfully constructive list - thanks everyone. I have put in several library requests for some of the books. I've got the whole of August and September to read up on the history and hopefully I shall be well informed by the time I leave. And thanks too johanna for confirming the pronunciation of Ieper. My mother lost two brothers who died within a few days of each other and perhaps I will find out a little more of their fate as well. I find it difficult to comprehend how that generation coped with the atrocities of war

I like you , find it difficult to imagine how they coped , guess just had to keep stiff upper lip and "bear it " . Thing is my son now is very interested in all of this , so they haven"t been forgotten

yogagran, if you go on the Commonwealth War Cemeteries website, you can perhaps find out where your uncles are buried (if they do indeed have a grave). If not, their names may be included on memorials such as Thiepval, Menin Gate, or Passendaele etc. As Nonu said, they've not been forgotten.

Yogagran, when we visited we found Paul Reed's books very interesting and useful. You will be staggered at the number of cemeteries, some very small, some very large, and it's worth visiting as many as you can. If you are able to, I would recommend making your visit to the Menin Gate the final stop on your tour and make sure you are there for the last post.

We visited a couple of years ago, and are determined to go back.

Take lots of tissues, some of the graves are heartbreaking