Abstract
Today Ypres and the surrounding First World War battlefields of Flanders are among the most visited places where the war is commemorated. A century after the conflict, Piet Chielens, Director of In Flanders Fields Museum, identifies three factors of 1917 that make Flanders a genius loci of the commemorative war landscape. Firstly, the military actions that made it one of the most terrible and international battlefields of the war. Secondly, the decision of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission to rebury the dead near to where they were originally interred has maintained interest in the battles by those visiting for remembrance purposes. And, thirdly, the foundational myths of some combatant nations including Australia, Belgium, Canada, and New Zealand are intrinsically linked to this landscape.
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Notes
- 1.
Belgian soldiers killed during the 5 months war of movement: 17,486;
Belgian soldiers killed during the 47 months on the stabilised Yser Front: 20,892;
Belgian civilians killed during the war: 25,735 (and counting).
‘The Names List’, In Flanders Fields Museum, accessed August, 2017, http://www.inflandersfields.be/en/namelist.
- 2.
ANZAC dead at Gallipoli 1915 and in Belgium 1917:
A.I.F. in Gallipoli, 25 April–31 December 1915: 8852;
N.Z.E.F. in Gallipoli, 25 April–31 December 1915: 2859;
A.I.F. 1 June–31 December 1917 in Belgium: 12,722;
N.Z.E.F. 1 June–31 December 1917 in Belgium: 4582.
‘Find War Dead and Cemeteries’, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, accessed August, 2017, https://www.cwgc.org/find and ‘The Names List’.
- 3.
Birger Stichelbaut and Piet Chielens, The Great War Seen from the Air: In Flanders Fields 1914–1918 (Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2013).
- 4.
‘The Names List’.
- 5.
Julie Summers, Remembered: The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (London, New York: Merrell, 2007), 17.
- 6.
Mary Lutyens, Edwin Lutyens by His Daughter (London: Viking, 1980), 153.
- 7.
Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot at Dawn: Executions in World War One by Authority of the British Army Act (London: Leo Cooper, 1989), 236.
- 8.
Achiel van Walleghem, Het Dagboek van Achiel Van Walleghem (Tielt: Lannoo, 2014). An excellent translation in English by Guido Latré and Susan Reed appeared as: Achiel van Walleghem, 1917 – The Passchendaele Year. The British Army in Flanders: The Diary of Achiel Van Walleghem (Brighton: Edward Everett Root Publishers, 2017).
- 9.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/15500/THE%20HUTS%20CEMETERY.
- 10.
‘The Names List’.
- 11.
Lt. Charles W.N. Garstin’s grave in Audregnies Churchyard, Hainaut, Belgium became known only at the Armistice, whilst the grave of Lt. John Kipling, Haisnes, France, could not be identified until 1992. The identity of the body in John Kipling’s grave is disputed. See Tonie and Valmai Holt, My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling’s Only Son (Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books, 1998).
- 12.
Philip Longworth, The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 1917–1984 (London: Leo Cooper, 1985), 82–95.
- 13.
Piet Chielens, Dominiek Dendooven, and Annick Vandenbilcke, In Flanders Fields Museum: Museum Guide (Ieper: In Flanders Fields Museum, 2013), 86–88.
Bibliography
Chielens, Piet, Dominiek Dendooven, and Annick Vandenbilcke. In Flanders Fields Museum: Museum Guide. Ieper: In Flanders Fields Museum, 2013.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. ‘Find War Dead and Cemeteries’. Accessed August, 2017. https://www.cwgc.org/find.
Holt, Tonie and Valmai. My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling’s Only Son. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books, 1998.
In Flanders Fields Museum. ‘The Names List’. Accessed August, 2017. http://www.inflandersfields.be/en/namelist.
Longworth, Philip. The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 1917–1984. London: Leo Cooper, 1985.
Lutyens, Mary. Edwin Lutyens by His Daughter. London: Viking, 1980.
Putkowski, Julian and Julian Sykes. Shot at Dawn: Executions in World War One by Authority of the British Army Act. London: Leo Cooper, 1989.
Stichelbaut, Birger and Piet Chielens. The Great War Seen from the Air: In Flanders Fields 1914–1918. Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2013.
Summers, Julie. Remembered: The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. London: Merrell, 2007.
van Walleghem, Achiel. Het Dagboek van Achiel Van Walleghem. Tielt: Lannoo, 2014.
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Chielens, P. (2018). 1917 in Flanders Fields: The Seeds for the Commemorative War Landscape in Belgian Flanders. In: Abbenhuis, M., Atkinson, N., Baird, K., Romano, G. (eds) The Myriad Legacies of 1917. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73685-3_11
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