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A Tribute paid!
Flanders is a region in the west of
Belgium
which stretches North to south from the
Netherlands
to France.
Ypres/ Ieper is a province in West Flanders where the first world
war, the infamous fighting between the Imperial German Armies of
the Emperor Wilhem II and the Allied Armies of Belgium, France &
Great Britain was fought; between 1914-1918. Many lives were lost,
in so small an area for so little material gain.
In Flanders Fields museum, one can see and feel the real horror
that a war can cause. The museum so vividly portrays the different
aspects of the WWI that one feels like walking past the
battlefield, knee deep in the bloody muddy fields under the heavy
exchange of shells and bombs in the vicinity. One can feel the
suffocation from the Mustard & Chlorine gas, used by the Germans
against the Allied forces. Limbs and torsos are seen dangling in
the barbed wire, cries and wails from the trodden ones send shiver
run deep down your spines.
Finally, when you step the staircase leading to the exit, you
start feeling glad that god had spared your life. It makes you
ponder, why on earth do wars arise to fallen the braves and braves
they remain who don’t even have a grave.
The next stop, the city’s most poignant memorial: The Menin gate,
constructed in 1929 to honour those whose bodies were never found.
The walls of the gate bear 54,896 names in total, the names which
never materialized in the form of a corpse.
I had read in the internet last year, when they put on the site on
the 11th of November: Armistic Day: Annual Commemorations in Ypres/Ieper;
that several Nepalese serving in the Indian Military Police also
died during the Trench war. But among those 54,896 names where can
I find them? was my wondering while I was entering the Menin gate.
To my astonishment, there right in the entrance, on the inner wall
that runs parallel to the main wall and supports the arch of the
gate, were the names which sounded so familiar and so dear to my
eyes and ears. I mumbled, YES! They were here. I ran my fingers
along the grooves of each and every names as to say, I pay tribute
to thee, who had fallen in this alien land for the reason which
you were not able to see, yet you were gone with the wind and your
body was never to be found.
Burma
Military Police:
Assam Military Police:Havildar
: Harkaman Rai. Rifleman : Daulat Man Rai.
Lance naik : Chitang Limbu. : Dharim Bir Rai.
Rifleman : Chandar Bdr. Gurung.
: Hastia Thapa.
: Karan Bdr. Limbu.
: Mehar Man Limbu.
: San Man Thapa.
Next was the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the biggest military cemetery in the continent
where 11,956 commonwealth soldiers were buried and where 34,957
names of the missing soldiers were penned down on the marble wall,
which stands at the back of the cemetery. Here every fallen
soldier has a white Portland stone as a tombstone, to mark his or
her presence; who bear the silent witness to those horrifying
days. When you stand in the middle of the cemetery and imagine,
instead of the tombstones how would you feel if they are dead
corpses lying on the field? Never would a person dream about
another merciless war in his/her lifetime that is for sure.
Wherever you drive in this present quite farmland, famous for the
best quality hops (main ingredient in beer brewing for the
bitterness and aroma) ever produced in the world, you can see the
memorials and cemeteries, makes you ponder how gravely this region
has witness the horrors of the war. Yet the white tombstones stand
proudly, listening to the last post (bugle) played on their honour
every evening at 8:00 since the day they fell.
Among the cemeteries, the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof looks very
dejected and gloomy. This is the graveyard for the fallen German
soldiers. Flat tombstones with bronze plates bearing the names of
the dead, all lie beneath the dark shadow of the huge Oak trees.
This is a place where you can read the history of selfless young
volunteers abused by the Nazis yet wanted to die for their
country.
War is war, either you kill or get killed, by the enemy or by your
friends. These detestable and disturbing legacies of the Great
War, can be felt once you enter the Inner Court of the town hall
in Poperinge. Here deserting soldiers were executed by
courts-martial. Even today, one can see the shooting post; they
used to execute their own people in the false pretence of
cowardice.
Finally, after witnessing the horrors of the war for the whole
day, a drop by in Dirksmuide, a small town where a story of
freedom and peace has been visualized in the form of a monument,
THE PAXGATEWAY, gives you a soothing for the freshly bled sores.
The ‘Paxgateway’, is a symbol of Freedom, Peace & Tolerance. Never
war again, nowhere & peace for everyone whatever his or her
convictions.
May Peace Prevail!
BY :- Grisma.
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