Updates2006 - three more bodies found at Ypres Britain's oldest surviving First World War veteran dies 75th anniversary at the Menin Gate Former soldiers aged 100+ visit the memorial in July 2002. End of ceremonies at the Menin Gate? Speculation that the dignified ceremony, which has taken place for many years, may be drawing to a close. In the late 1990s, a group of amateur archaeologists discovered the remains of a forgotten World War One battlefield at Boesinghe in Belgium. Paul Reed tells the story of a battle left out of the history books. (March 2002) A motorway threatens to ruin the scene of the battlefields A moving account of the war by a survivor, now aged 107. Article in The People about visits to war graves, etc. now that this is part of the National Curriculum. .. Plan to make a motorway through the battlefields. Guardian, 19th December 2001 BBC News, 2nd November 2001. Belgian Town pays tribute to WW1 dead Memorial service, 1st November 2001 Princes mark Ypres 25,000th "Last Post" BBC news, 31st October 2001 85th anniversary of the battle of the Somme Memorial service, 1st July 2001. BBC to devise a programme showing reality in the trenches, and wants volunteers (25.6.01) This article also contains some telling information about the common perceptions about the war, and the lack of information about the role of women. Did you know that 100,000 Chinese soldiers on the Western front? Bodies continue to be found over eighty years after the conflict.Articles in newspapers: This comes from a recent update by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:Recently there has been the discovery of remains near the village of Boezinge in Belgium. The village, just north of Ieper, was until July 1917, directly faced by the German front line on the East side but in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July 1917) the British front line was pushed forward. Unfortunately, the very nature of First World War deaths and the eighty plus year time lapse, often means no identification is possible. On 26 October, twelve sets of the remains found at Boezinge that could only be determined as unidentified British soldiers were buried with full honours at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cement House Cemetery, Langemarck, Belgium following a highly moving ceremony. "Cement House" was the name given by the army to a fortified farm building on the Langemarck-Boezinge road. The cemetery was started at the end of August 1917 and used until April 1918. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of burials from the surrounding battlefields and now contains almost 3,000 burials of which some two-thirds are unidentified. The majority of the burials are those of officers and men who died during the Third Battle of Ypres in the Autumn of 1917. |