While I was lazying my way though the Grand Place square in Brussels (one day after touring the WW1 sites), I overheard a guide talking to a tourist group. The only word I heard clearly was ‘beheaded’. The group went in unison “Oh my God”. I wondered, as I often do, how is it that people en masse don’t realise that such things were very common for much of human history. They were nothing special. They were general. They were ubiquitous. And also, most people don’t realise how extraordinarily good the current times are in historical context. For most part, the story of human civilisation is a story of oppressions and killings. A story of tribalism with as much underlying ferociousness as in the fiercest of ant colonies.
I have a very dour view of human nature and history (as if I needed to state this explicitly after the opening para). But it is my huge scepticism for human tendencies that make me marvel at how good certain regions of the world have become in recent times (post WW2). The two world wars accelerated the progress towards making the world better. They were serious tragedies but absent them the transition to peace (of course, peace is still elusive in many regions) would have been much slower. The world wars shaped the current world order and a lot of clues in understanding the present lies in the histories of the world wars. That’s my impression anyways and is the reason for my fascination with studying the two world wars.
During my France and Belgium motorcycle trip (Jul-22), I spent a day riding around Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium. It was an important site in WW1. I have marked the three key sites I visited in map (below) if you want to ride/drive this route. There are many other war landmarks in the area if you want to cover more.
The western front was a key and decisive front of the war. It was roughly 400 miles stretch from Switzerland to the English Channel. Ypres was a strategic spot. Belgium was neutral and Ypres was critical to Germany’s plan of sweeping through France. That’s what led to Germany breaching Belgium’s neutrality and hence resulting in Britain joining the war. 5 key WW1 battles in the area resulted in >1mn causalities. It was in 2nd battle of Ypres (1915) where gas bomb was used for the first time (by Germans). The 3rd battle is probably most famous (for senseless loss of lives) and often known as Battle of Passchendaele. For most duration of the war, the opponents were gridlocked in trenches as advances in war technology such as artillery and machine guns made a naked march very difficult between opponents of comparable strengths (WW1 is also called ‘a war of trenches’). The trenches of Ypres were the sight of the Christmas truce of 1914 (unofficial ceasefire between British and German soldiers during Christmas of 1914). Tyne Cot Cemetery is also in this area. It is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world (any war). For its role in the war, the City of Ypres was awarded a Military Cross (only one other municipality, Verdun in France, earned it).
So, if you are into WW history, a tour of the area will enhance the texture of your knowledge of the great war. Because I hate to rush, I covered less sites than is possible in a day (thought I believe I visited the three key ones). My first stop was Dodengang, 300 yards stretch of preserved trenches along Yser Canal. The ride to the site through the bucolic Belgium was very pleasant.
The serenity of Yser Canal makes it difficult to imagine it was a site of such major horrors.
My second stop was the Memorial Museum at Passchendale, which I found impressive. One key attraction of this museum is juxtaposed British and German trenches (recreated). To me, the British design was more impressive (also helped by the fact that the empire enabled Britain to source all sorts of material which the Germans couldn’t). While an ardent fan of German goods, over time I have come to appreciate the British design. The vintage Mini! Why it had to be sold to BMW? It was too bad the UK, for whatever reasons, gave up on industry.
Finally, I visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery. It had to be a sobering experience. 11,956 graves (8,961 British). No camera perspective can capture the sight that it is. I recalled Warren Buffett citing Normandy American Cemetery (a WW2 burial site) as a proof that no one achieves it alone (in the context of tax/welfare debates). The shared sacrifices in these mega wars is probably a reason why socialistic policies are so deeply engrained in the European countries.
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