Tour of the BATTLEFIELDS of FRANCE & BELGIUM

                                         Westhof Farm Cemetery

DAY 1

Leo & I set off to Lille to meet up with the touring party. Our guide was Steve, he served in the British Army and is an avid war historian. We traveled in a Renault Mini Bus with 3 other Aussies (Ian, Lyn & their 24 year old son Hugh) from Queensland. Really nice folks, they had similar sense of humor to us and we all got on well.

Leo’s father served in the 44th Battalion, 3rd Division AIF in WW1 and returned from the war. I was in search of ”Great Uncle, Private Harold Heath’s” final resting place in the Westhof Farm Cemetery in Belgium.

It was quite strange as I arrived at the cemetery. From my prior research I knew that I could walk straight up to his grave site. He was in section 2 of the front row, 5 graves this side of the monument. The cemetery is only small, but (as with all of the CWG sites) it is “manicured”. Each site has a book with all of the names (and some details) of the dead buried there. A visitor’s book enables you to leave your name and a message if you wish. Unfortunately the sun was not on the face of the headstone and it was difficult to see or read (or photograph) the details. I did the best I could but the results were not good. Everyone was very disappointed for me, and unknown to me, arranged to go to the cemetery early the following day on the chance that the sun may have been on the face of the headstone. But alas we still missed out. It was suggested that water poured on the headstone may highlight the inscription. It appeared to but the photos are still quite ordinary.

The Buglers at the Menin Gate

I will not go into details of the other places we visited during the day because they are too numerous to mention, but the day was finished by being at Ypres and watching the “Last Post” ceremony at the Menin Gate” & 8.00 pm (This ceremony is carried out 365 days a year and has been since 1927 to express their eternal gratitude for saving the Independence & Freedom of Belgium) We estimate that approx 800 - 1000 people would have witnessed it tonight.

DAY 2

Today we visited many famous places of military interest including the Somme, Fromelles Battlegrounds, Bullecourt and where the British and Empire forces launched an offensive around the town of Arras in early April 1917. We are to stay overnight in Arras and we drink quite a few beers before going to a function in the evening and drinking quite a few more. Fortunately for us, we can sleep in Sunday morning.  NOT!!!!!

DAY 3

ANZAC DAY . The alarm is set for 1.30 am for an early start to get on the bus to be at Villers-Bretonneux for the Dawn Service. I went prepared to take lots of photos and video of the service but it was so moving that I only took 1 photo. There were approx 3000 – 3500 people at the service and you could have heard a pin drop. It looks amazing on TV but to actually be there was something else. After the service I was interviewed by Channel 7. Leo reckons that it was only because I was wearing my Akubra and looked like Bazza McKenzie.

Afterwards we were taken to the village of V-B for breakfast and were given the opportunity to march in their Anzac March up the hill to a memorial for another Anzac Day Service. As we reached the top of the hill the crowd started to clap and cheer. Leo said they only did that because they heard that the tall bloke in the Akubra had been interview by Channel 7. I was starting to get the impression that he was jealous. We visited the local school that had been built from money donated by Victorian kids after the war

The rest of the day was taken up with visiting other Battlefield Sites & Monuments of interest, finishing up at our overnight accomodation at the Hotel Normandie in Amiens. Now that is an amusing story, stay tuned.