Langemarck

The British and Commonwealth dead from the slaughter on the Western Front in WW1

were, where possible, identified and ceremonially buried in individual graves in quiet

cemeteries near where they died. We can visit these today all over Northern France

and Belgium where the line of trenches was established in 1914/5, and we can marvel

at the respect shown to and the beauty of these memorial sites, as tended by the

local population and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The German dead,

however, who outnumbered our own, were almost universally buried in mass graves,

often with no reference to who was there - because unknown.

This image is at the German cemetery at Langemarck, with their dead from the Battle

of Third Ypres - Passchendaele, 1917. Comrades buried together in their thousands,

but memorialised in this 'gatehouse'. Our own victims of Passchendaele are in the

biggest cemetery of all - at Tyne Cot, virtually next door and just about the most

heart-breaking site you will ever see.

The British and Commonwealth dead from the slaughter on the Western Front in WW1 were,

where possible, identified and ceremonially buried in individual graves in quiet cemeteries near

where they died. We can visit these today all over Northern France and Belgium where the line

of trenches was established in 1914/5, and we can marvel at the respect shown to and the

beauty of these memorial sites, as tended by the local population and the Commonwealth War

Graves Commission. The German dead, however, who outnumbered our own, were almost

universally buried in mass graves, often with no reference to who was there - because unknown.

This image is at the German cemetery at Langemarck, with their dead from the Battle of Third

Ypres - Passchendaele, 1917. Comrades buried together in their thousands, but memorialised in

this 'gatehouse'. Our own victims of Passchendaele are in the biggest cemetery of all - at Tyne

Cot, virtually next door and just about the most heart-breaking site you will ever see.