I’d read about the fighting on the Yser River in WW1 but never realized how massive. There were 5 battles over about 6 months and about 800,000 allied and German casualties. The town of Ypres (Leper) was flattened as was the surrounding countryside. Every night at 8:00, since 1928 (except for WWII when the occupying Germans forbade it) there is a 5 minute period when the local fire brigade goes to this wall and bugles are played to honor the dead. There is also a museum that depicts all that happened. We are so lucky we have not had a war on our land of this magnitude, it is shocking.
There are cemeteries like this all along our bike paths. They are immaculate with fresh flowers. Most of the markers are not named as there were so many killed and unidentified.
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