A nice clear morning. The wind has dropped away completely.
Ryan and I surfaced first. Greg crawled out of his ancient (according to him, classic?) tent after some time. Ryan in the meantime had walked into town, found a supply of croissants for breakfast and we quickly despatched them with freshly brewed coffee.
We got kitted-up and on the bikes.
Me, watching for Greg in my mirror before leaving the tent area.
We re-crossed back into France, almost due south, skirting Armentieres to the west.
The battle of Neuve Chapelle commenced in march 1915. The point was to capture Aubers Ridge to permit a breakout, the ultimate objective was to recapture the City of Lille, capital of French Flanders.
The German positions in and around Neuve Chapelle formed a salient. Normally such a position is difficult to hold as it is exposed to concentrated artillery fire from the flanks. However, owing to what was to become the "Great Shell Scandal," the British did not have sufficient ammunition to bombard the German positions. So bad was the ammunition shortage and small arms ammunition was in limited supply too, that it took careful control just to ensure enough for the three days allotted to the attack itself.
This meant that the artillery, such as it was (there was a shortage of guns too. What guns there were, were often worn out. They were prone to splitting worn barrels and their accuracy was badly effected), could not afford to use ammunition to range on intended targets.
Manpower was an issue as well. The 'new' armies were not ready. Many Territorials had volunteered for overseas service (the Territorials were officially recruited in peacetime on the basis that their role would be to replace Regular units for Home Defence) but they were mainly employed in holding the line. There was still some (unjustified) thinking in the higher echelons, that the "Terriers" were not up to offensive actions.
Regular units had been pulled back to the UK from colonial duties and then deployed in Flanders. My paternal grandfather's Division was among them, however, it was immediately turned around and sent to the Mediterranean for the ill-fated Dardenelles (Gallipoli) offensive.
Not only were British Regulars here from overseas but Indian Army formations and the newly arrived Canadian Division too.
Our intention was to follow the action over the ground as it is today. The battle itself centred on the small town of Neuve Chapelle. The German positions ran through the town at the start of the battle, the British front-line was to the west.
Despite the shortages of ammunition and the inability of the guns to register on their targets prior to the assault, the initial attack was a success. The Germans were overwhelmed by the disciplined attacks of the Regular soldiers pitched against them.
It was a stunning result given the shortages but as was to happen so often in the following years, confusion born of limited communications that were stretched further with every yard of advance, eventually meant that opportunities were missed. Units that found they had an open field ahead of them were frustrated to find that they received explicit orders not to advance.
Sometimes this was tactically correct as units on their flanks had not advanced as far, often however it was due to the formation commanders having a very sketchy picture of what was happening. That is not a criticism of the Generals. They found themselves fighting a 20th Century war with 19th Century communications.
We visited a CWGC cemetery within Neuve Chapelle. It was one of many small sites.
Neuve Chapelle sits on a network of irrigation channels that criss cross the battlefield. They are as an effective barrier to the visitor today as they were to the British and Indian troops that fought their way through the town in 1915.
The town has been rebuilt and has expanded since the Great War. This together with the many channels made retracing the battle in detail impossible with the time available today.
Aubers Ridge itself is not like Vimy, a large and obvious feature. In this area of flat, low lying ground, the ridge is almost not worthy of the name. It's only for the advantage that it gave artillery observers in 1915 that it really is of any significance.
A better option for the modern day visitor is to turn to the junction of the D171 and the D947. This was the location of a small British salient known as Port Arthur.
Although you cannot see the ridge from here, the Bois de Biez wood stands in the way, the wood itself was the scene of fierce actions by the Gurkhas. Bois de Biez had been found to be undefended but the orders to standfast allowed the Germans rush troops in overnight.
On the roundabout junction in what was once Port Arthur, stands a memorial to the missing 
of the Indian Army that fought so gallantly here.
The memorial is circular, walled and surrounded by a dry moat. Willows planted at the entrance give it an air of tranquillity despite being so close to a busy junction.
The column is inscribed in four languages.
This panel reads:
"To the honour of the Army of India which fought in France and Belgium 1914 - 1918 and in perpetual remembrance of those of their dead whose names are here recorded and have no known grave."
In addition to the names of the Indian Army missing recorded here, there is this plaque with the names of those who died in captivity.
This personal family memorial was raised on the spot where Lt. Crighton was killed.
3rd Battalion The London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) were one of a handful of Territorial battalions that fought in the battle.
They proved that the "Terriers" were as capable as the by now almost decimated Regular battalions.
Three days were allowed for the taking of Aubers Ridge. The first day was a success in that all objectives were taken but the breakdown in communications meant that an opportunity was missed. The Staff expected the Germans to be in greater strength than they in fact were. The pause allowed the Germans to reinforce.
Although Aubers Ridge wasn't taken, Neuve Chapelle was celebrated at home as a victory.
In a foretaste of how the modern media operates, the Press of the day got wind of the ammunition and artillery shortages. It couldn't be hushed-up and it became a national scandal.
Personally, I was disappointed that I'd not been able to examine the ground in better detail but this was my first visit here. With more reading and a longer visit I feel that I'll get a better grip on the battlefield.
We entered the Bois de Biez as we headed back to Ypres. Today the forward edges of the wood are the site of some very expensive looking modern houses.
There are quite a few decent looking campsites between Aubers and Armentieres. I must get back here and spend a couple of days looking around.
We rode back to Ypres, through the main square and the Menin Gate.
(The original buildings have been reconstructed. The Menin Gate is just visible to the right of the building in the centre).
Just off the Menin Road, before Hooge, there is a turning on the right. There are signs to a Canadian cemetery and the Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood) memorial. The signs are the normal CWGC green with white lettering.
On the junction is a large cafe. It was passed lunch time and the place was closed. It was beginning to feel as though most of Belgium was shut.
Putting aside our hunger, we rode on up to Hill 62 itself passing the large Canadian cemetery on the way and the privately owned Sanctuary Wood museum.
Hill 62 is laid out to give a panoramic view of the surrounding battlefields.
There are pointers to the significant positions so that visitors can orientate themselves.
We returned to the private Sanctuary Wood museum and cafe. Despite the warning about the place I'd received at Thiepval, we entered hoping for some lunch before looking around the museum.
I have no intention of warning potential visitors off the museum. All I will do is record our experiences and views.
On entering the building, on your left is a display of WWI artefacts and memorabilia for sale. Mostly it's cheap tat. Behind this sits the rotund and frankly not very clean looking proprietor.
The cafe itself is shabby. The lady behind the counter was in keeping with her surroundings. The few sandwiches and rolls looked even worse. We decided that we were not hungry enough to risk the fare on offer.
On approaching the proprietor, we were brusquely informed that the cost was 7.50 Euro each and pointed to the scruffy entrance.
Inside was an equally scruffy room measuring about four metres by nine. One wall was lined with display cases and all remaining wall space had framed photo's and paintings. Arranged around the edge of an old wooden table and along one of the shorter walls were wooden, hand operated "what the butler saw" type machines. These were free to use and contained glass slides of Great War images.
There are a lot of not often seen images in these. Some of them are particularly grisly, some are badly cracked or broken and a percentage are repeated in each of the machines.
The artefacts on display are covered in dust and have nothing to explain them to the visitor. The overall impression is that anything that is in some manner related to the war has been collected and just dumped in a totally haphazard way.
Passing through another door, the visitor enters what seems to be a shed of similar dimensions to the previous room.
Here again there are display cases all around the walls and this time a heap of items in the centre. When I say a heap, that's exactly how the items are "arranged."
This photo gives you an idea.
Quite what a WWII vintage Jerry-can has to do with Sanctuary Wood is beyond me!
The dust gives an idea of the amount of care that has been lavished on the museum pieces!!!
Another out of place item, this time behind glass, is this Bren gun (another WWII item).
It was interesting to see the artillery shells but whether they were French, British or German?
The two tall shells at the rear look suspiciously like WWII German 88mm anti-aircraft or anti-tank shells to me!
I wondered what the significance of the suitcase was.
Greg (tongue firmly in cheek) suggested that it might have belonged to Corporal Hitler!!!
I was annoyed by the time we exited into the section of 'preserved' trenches.
This section of what was known by the Tommies as Sanctuary Wood, is on the family land of the proprietor. His grandfather, on taking repossession of his property after the war, decided to keep the trenches intact.
Today, all that can be said with any possible accuracy, is that what you see is likely to be the original line of the trenches.
I don't take issue with the trenches being revetted with corrugated sheets (or what in my day in the army we called wriggly-tin).
Nor the use of modern, iron pig-ark's as overhead shelter.
There is however, no notice, sign or information in evidence anywhere here, that what the visitor is seeing, is effectively a reconstruction.
Evidence of the "reconstruction" can be seen.
The edges of this hole have recently been dug out and re-profiled.
At what point does a constantly re-dug "shell hole" cease to have any relevant connection to the events of 90+ years ago?
In my opinion, nature should be left to heal the scars herself. We have seen how at Vimy Ridge, the hummocks and depressions, now overgrown by grass, are much more evocative. Even after 90 years and nature's best efforts, the imprint of man's war is still there, silent and compelling.
This artifice just made me more annoyed the more I saw it.
Why not allow the remains of original trees to wither instead of adding cement?
Or nailing a piece of modern cut timber to the original?
My cynicism reached a point where I suspected that these trees may not originally have been here at all!
At the rear of the buildings, while snooping around, we found a pile of rusty pig-arks, six foot steel pickets and other bits and pieces. This was obviously a store of items for use in the future.
I had got to the point where the only reason that I was still here was a slightly prurient desire to see how far someone was prepared to exploit the events for venal purposes.
I don't think that 7.5 Euro (about a fiver) is an extortionate fee but I do begrudge the sum on the basis that there is a degree of deception being practised here. Many people probably visit, thinking or believing, that the CWGC signs to Hill 62 are an endorsement.
I wouldn't mind paying the owner the entry fee if he was actually doing something to preserve the items on display and to provide some information. Instead, what you find here is a collection of disparate, unidentified artefacts, some of which are not related in any way to the events of the Great War, mostly lying under years of dust or preserved in the most unsuitable or unsympathetic manner.
We were all quiet as we left but not in the usual contemplative manner. Personally, I was angry. The memory of the men who died here was sullied by the owners avarice.
We moved off. I wanted to put some distance between myself and this museum. A shame really.
We turned right along the Menin Road passing Hooge on the way. The crater is long filled-in. There is a cemetery here but there are also large hoardings announcing Hooge Crater. I'd had enough of financial exploitation and didn't want to risk deepening my bad mood by stopping to find another such. Perhaps I am doing Hooge a disservice, it may not be like Sanctuary Wood. Maybe another time (when I haven't been to the other place first).
A small tarmac road led off from the Menin Road to Polygon Wood cemetery.
The dates on the grave stones reveal the continuing action in and around Polygon Wood.
Polygon Wood was on the southern flank of the Ypres Salient.
When the Germans attacked the salient in 1915, (they used Gas for the first time in the 1915 Ypres Battle) they successfully forced the Allies back and caused a contraction of the Ypres Salient. Polygon Wood was abandoned to the German attackers.
In this CWGC cemetery is a single grave of a German soldier. He has a standard CWGC headstone and not one of the normal varieties one usually sees in German cemeteries, although the script is not the same.
An RBL cross has been left by a visitor. A touching reminder that we should by now have put aside any sense of antagonism towards our former enemy.
Sadly, the crack across the headstone shows that not everyone agrees. The crack is in fact a joint where the headstone has been broken and repaired.
On the other side of the road from this cemetery is an avenue of trees through the wood leading to a man-made mound atop which is a memorial.
Climbing the mound gives you a view down onto another Polygon Wood CWGC cemetery.
Looking back through the avenue of trees.
Not wishing to repeat yesterday's culinary experience, we decided to eat in. We therefore needed to find a supermarket or some shops to buy something to cook.
This seemingly simple task turned out to be much less simple than it should have been.
After riding through Ypres again and looking at the sort of places you'd expect to find supermarkets, all we had seen was a small Spar shop!
Eventually we were on the road back towards Kemmel, not far outside Ypres, when we saw what appeared to be an out-of-town shopping centre.
The only supermarket was a slightly down-at-heel Lidel (aren't they all?). We didn't have long until closing time so there was little choice but to buy something now.
Stocked-up with the necessaries, we headed back to the campsite, where contrary to their rules, the owner allowed us to buy a couple of dozen cold bottles of beer on the understanding that we return the empties to the bar before leaving the site.
The 'earnest youngsters' had packed-up and moved on. We had some new neighbours, two English women, with whom we quaffed a beer at the bar before heading back to the tents to cook dinner.
In the morning, we will visit Tyne Cot cemetery and then have a closer look at Ypres itself, finishing-up with the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate.
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