War Cemeteries, some pictures I wish to share

[jack neville]

I did a tour of the Western Front a few years ago and stopped to look at a few cemeteries, but it wasn't till I did a guided tour from Ypres in Belgium that I understood the significance of the layout of the headstones. It gave me a whole new appreciation of the importance of the cemeteries. Especially when you see the headstones situated around the edge of the perimeter and the headstones that are positioned touching each other. Seeing those makes you stop and think. There is a set of five headstones in the Alemein Cemetery in Egypt that has five stones together. It means five men died at the same time in the same place so they are buried side by side. Maybe from a shell burst or a tank crew or something similar but understanding the way the cemeteries are laid out and seeing the different headstones in different positions is really moving at times.

[Bruce MacMillan]

I had the fortune to do a tour of Canadian cemeteries & memorials in France & Belgium last year with Norm Christie. It was the most educational & moving trip I had done. It wasn't like reading a book or watching tv, you were actually there with the fallen, in many places where they fell.

What I noticed was the large number of school kids from France, Belgium & England that were there learning this history. I wish our schools taught more about our military history. But I guess it's still not PC.

Here's a link to my photos of the trip.
https://picasaweb.google.com/BruceM0...eat=directlink

click on thumbnails to enlarge

[jaap de wit]

Here are some pictures of the war cemeteries in the el alamein perimeter.
I visited the museum and cemetery in 2008.
We must never forget the sacrifice made by those who gave so much.
I think these les known places, like the desert war and the far east war cemeteries must not be forgotten.
I hope buy showing these pictures of the desert war cemeteries and later the burma railroad cemetery, we remember those men.

jaap

[jack neville]

Your photos above show the five headstones i was referring to.

[jaap de wit]

As I said before here are some pictures of the cemetary in kanchanaburi thailand, this is near the bridge over the river kwai. on this cemetary are men from 6 different country's buried (some 1100 dutch are there to).
As you can see they are taken care of ferry well. As I walked arround I saw a some graves with the same last names as mine (at home I asked my familie and they where not related) The first picture of mr: M.P. de Wit was a engineer in the dutch navy, the same as me, is'nt that spooky to come across. I followed the railroad to the end by train and then you get a idear of the great scale they were working on. Also don't forget the asian workers who died working next to the P.O.W's. we most rember them to

jaap

[Alex van de Wetering]

Attached are some pictures from a few weeks ago. The area around Calais is packed with bunkers and fortifications, including the remains of the cross Channel guns and hide-outs for the Railway cannons, also able to propell shells across to the UK. The Canadians were in charge of silencing these guns, some of which stayed active right to the end.

Calais Canadian War Cemetery. The War cemetery is actually right opposite a famous service station "Site des deux caps" along the freeway.

Alex

[Dean (Ajax)]

I have been to a few of those, and Many more, they are Very Moving, and truly bring home the cost of War.

Dean

[Jon Skagfeld]

Originally Posted by jack neville

I did a tour of the Western Front a few years ago and stopped to look at a few cemeteries, but it wasn't till I did a guided tour from Ypres in Belgium that I understood the significance of the layout of the headstones. It gave me a whole new appreciation of the importance of the cemeteries. Especially when you see the headstones situated around the edge of the perimeter and the headstones that are positioned touching each other. Seeing those makes you stop and think. There is a set of five headstones in the Alemein Cemetery in Egypt that has five stones together. It means five men died at the same time in the same place so they are buried side by side. Maybe from a shell burst or a tank crew or something similar but understanding the way the cemeteries are laid out and seeing the different headstones in different positions is really moving at times.

Speaking of five headstones: in a German Cemetary (the one where Michael Wittman and his crew are buried), the name of which escapes me right now, are rows of crosses in black stone all in five unit groups. The peculiar thing is that the middle cross is larger and higher than the two beside it. Nobody seemed to be offer an explanation as to their significance.

Edit: Just remembered...it's La Cambe German cemetary.