8/22/19-8/23/19 Channel Crossing, Dunkirk and Flanders Fields

Quick and easy trip from lovey Woodchurch England to Dover and our ferry crossing to France. Using the P&O ferry line this trip, not nearly as nice as Stena lines( no jacuzzi suite 😎) easy crossing, great weather.

Ok, return to driving on the right. Just like riding a bike, ya never forget👍

On to Dunkirk, which is a pivotal city in history. Dunkirk was the port that supported the allied forces of WW1 as most of the war was fought close by here.

French war cemetery WW1 Dunkirk

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Dunkirk was also pivotal in WWII as Germany quickly overwhelmed the French and Belgian troops at the start of WWII, the British army had to quickly evacuate to the beaches of Dunkirk. Over 500,000 troops were strangled at one point. The British navy managed to rescue 250,000 leaving over 200,000 stranded on the beach. Winston Churchill took over as PM and quickly put together a plan using the British Navy and civilian boats to rescue the remaining men. Quite an epic event 👍

British Memorial, Dunkirk

On to Kortemark area of Belgium our home for the next several days. Our lovely Airbnb is located on a farm, shocking 😜

This is the area, WWI was primarily fought in, its know as the Ypres area, or Flanders Fields. My grandpa Trafton fought in WWI, so it’s a special place for Cindy and I to visit 🇺🇸 Grandpa never said a word about the war, except one time. When I was looking at his medals I said, “How did you become a Sargent?” He said” I survived”🇺🇸

American memorial

Ypres, also known as leper, had three major battles in WWI, and is now a beautiful city

Flanders Field museum, very very well done

Menin’s Gate, a salute to British soldiers who lost their lives in Belgium, from the people of Belgium

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John McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Field in Ypres. We visited his surgery bunker where he wrote the poem.

Next was the Trench of Death, where actual WWI trench’s have been rebuilt. Mind numbing this war was. Back and forth in the mud, snow and heat for over three years in a area smaller than a mile in depth.

The Great War as WWI is referred to in Europe, killed over ten million soldiers from around the world and another six million civilians. The Great War is also blamed for the world wide influenza pandemic in 1918 that killed over 100 million world wide. In every French city we’ve visited, large or small, there is a memorial stone spear with the names of men from that area who died in the Great War. One in ten French men were killed in WWI. Unbelievable that less than 30 years later the world was at war again. Mindless!

The memorials in Diksmuide, No More War!

Just another reminder, Freedom don’t come free🇺🇸