Ypres Salient 3

11 June Part 1:  Morning

The In Flanders Field Museum deserves its own post.  It was the coolest, most interactive museum I’ve ever visited.  Upon entry, you receive a white and red poppy bracelet, which has a microchip in it.  You register your name and surname, then tap it at a variety of spots.  The correct language arrives, and at the end, you can find out the four people they have connected you to from the exhibit’s archives. One of mine had my birthday, and another died on my birthday.  The other two were German, as I used my maiden name.

There was a fabulous table used as a projection screen to describe the movements of the troops during the four Ypres battles.  What a terrific learning tool, as movie clips, troop activity, fires and floods were all depicted on top of a topographical map of the region.  It was impressive.  Another area had a curved screen, which from the outside looked like the front of a Zeppelin.  From the inside, the camera angles looked like Soaring over California at Disneyland. They combined current landscapes with historical photos and film clips to tell the story of Ypres, the town. Looking at the beautiful square today, it was hard to realize the Germans completely flattened it in WW1.  They rebuilt most of it using the original stones with additions. Besides a fashion show of uniforms like the display at Passendale, this exhibit emphasized the French’s need to camouflage their bright and cheerful uniforms, which were too easy for the enemy to target.  French soldiers used coffee, tea, and clay to dirty their uniforms.  When they Americans came over in 1917, they were in various shades of khaki because the Allies learned what worked.

The museum is in the old Cloth Hall, off of Grote Markt.  That space has been used for trading for centuries, and it was a matter of pride for the Belgians to rebuild it as soon as possible.  We paid the extra 2 euros to climb 215 steps up to the top of the tower.  From this vantage point (with the help of aerial photos) we were able to identify most of the sites we had seen and were going to see.  I was able to conquer a bit of vertigo as long as the spiral staircases had stone walls, but when we had to climb a fire escape type of ladder, it was tough.  Fortunately, that brought us to the bell room, where a computerized organ is programmed to chime the bells at certain times.  Little did we know it was almost 11 o’clock, but when the first bell rang within 10 feet above our heads, we did know.  Eardrum vibrations sent us scurrying to the next stone spiral staircase, laughing as we went.  I recorded the last ten bongs and hope to play them on 11-11-18 for the Centenary of the Armistice, somewhere.