Gas Attacks on the Western Front - Langemark, Belgium
I have to say, the next morning it was really hard to get out of bed. The lack of REM in the last couple of days combined with the incredibly comfy hotel bed made me want to never wake up again. But alas, Ed has the energy of a 3 year old on speed, so my plan went out the window as soon as I heard him jump out of bed and start talking non stop.
For breakfast I was expecting warm Belgian waffles with orange home made marmalade and butter but instead we got an English breakfast; hard to escape those apparently. While grumpy Davo moaned about his hangover, we all ate our eggs with beans and toast, trying to ignore him.
First item on the agenda for today was stocking up on Belgian goodies: chocolate and beer! We checked out of the hotel and walked down to the Vandele Patisserie where rows and stacks of different chocolate bars and bonbons were neatly displayed. The owner was a cheery Belgian whose chocolate shop had been in his family for many generations, and it showed on the old trays and tables where the chocolate was served. We each picked the boxes to take home for ourselves and as gifts, and got an extra bag of chocolate cherries on the house.
Next, it was off to the supermarket to get our beloved cherry beer. Oddly enough, here in Belgium the beer is sold in small 300cc bottles, which basically meant we had to take more quantity. Loaded with cherry beer and chocolate, we found our way back to the car and drove out of Ypres to our next destination: Langemark German Cemetery
I was surprised that there was a German cemetery in Belgium considering the Germans had been the enemies of the war, but I guess that at the end of the day, it’s still people that died and suffered during the war, no matter what nationality or political view. In the cemetery we were greeted by a field of red poppies where a small museum had been erected. The museum consisted of 4 screens, each showing footage and pictures of war, more specifically the chemical warfare used in this part of Belgium.
Langemark village was the first scene of poison gas attacks deployed by the German army which marked the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. Chlorine gas in the form of a yellow-green cloud floated its way to the French and Algerian troops which puzzled, grew silent in fear. The effects of chlorine gas (called Mustard Gas because of its color) were severe. Within seconds of breathing in the gas, it destroyed the victim’s respiratory organs, filling the lungs with fluid, bringing on choking attacks.
I remembered a poem we had studied in 8th grade, written by a soldier, Wilfred Owen, who during the war wrote poetry and sent it back to his mother, although he himself never made it back home.
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Groups of PoppiesGas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori. (1)
I have to say, the next morning it was really hard to get out of bed. The lack of REM in the last couple of days combined with the incredibly comfy hotel bed made me want to never wake up again. But alas, Ed has the energy of a 3 year old on speed, so my plan went out the window as soon as I heard him jump out of bed and start talking non stop.
First item on the agenda for today was stocking up on Belgian goodies: chocolate and beer! We checked out of the hotel and walked down to the Vandele Patisserie where rows and stacks of different chocolate bars and bonbons were neatly displayed. The owner was a cheery Belgian whose chocolate shop had been in his family for many generations, and it showed on the old trays and tables where the chocolate was served. We each picked the boxes to take home for ourselves and as gifts, and got an extra bag of chocolate cherries on the house.
Next, it was off to the supermarket to get our beloved cherry beer. Oddly enough, here in Belgium the beer is sold in small 300cc bottles, which basically meant we had to take more quantity. Loaded with cherry beer and chocolate, we found our way back to the car and drove out of Ypres to our next destination: Langemark German Cemetery