Passchendaele 90 Years Later

[Willy]

Please, remember them !
What a weekend ! 10 and 11 November in Passchendaele ! Perhaps you already know that I am a member of the Volunteer Passchendaele Society. The president is a former Belgian navy officer. He's retired, but he's an archeologist now. He's already found the remains of British, Australian and German soldiers. He took the initiative to organize events to commemorate the 90 th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele.

Canadalaan
The British were helped by the Canadians in the final attack. The Road to Passchendaele was a hell ! Last night there was a torchlight procesion in the last mile leading to Passchendaele church in 1917. It's a street now called "Canadalaan", this to honour the Canadians who fell in this final attack. In front there was a band of pipers. English and French was spoken everywhere. I felt like a foreigner in my own country. You could see Canadian flags in "Canadalaan" everywhere. There was drizzle most of the the time and also this made us think of the awful weather in October and November 1917. There were no houses, no trees. There was only mud !

Last event ... Time to edit now !
The Canadian weekend was the last event this year. A plaque was unveiled. There was a concert, a book fayre, a guided walk, etc... My thoughts didn't only go to the thousands of soldiers in Flanders Fields, but also to those who even die today in Irak, in Afghanistan, ... There are still terrible wars in the world. Did all those young men give their lives for nothing in 1917 ? There is still madness everywhere in the world.

Now it's time to make a film about all these events. Today I came home with 5 hours of film. Many speeches were held and yes, I couldn' stop filming them. Imagine that someone would say something exceptional and very useful for my film and that my camera is not running... All together I must have about 30 hours of footage ! That's very stupid, because now it will take hours and hours to select the best shots.

[ned c]

There is an excellent book of "oral history" about the battle titled "They Called it Passchendaele" by Lyn Macdonald, 1978 ISBN 0 333 36067 it is one in a series of collections of WW1 oral histories that she wrote.

ned c

[Dave Watterson]

Willy mentioned it on another thread but for Jan and me the "In Flanders Field" museum in Ypres was the most powerful evocation of the war we have ever come across. It is no dusty museum with dull displays. It is an experience that engages you, gets its claws into you ... and after 90 minutes we had to leave.

That exhibition is an international treasure. If you ever have a chance to be anywhere at all in the vicinity make sure you see it.

Luckily there are cafes nearby where you can take a drink or eat a waffle afterwards to help you recover.

Dave

[Willy]

Flemish young man became Canadian soldier !

As I told you : there was a concert with slides and film (archive footage) in Passchendaele Church on Saturday night.
It was the moving story of a young poor Belgian adventurer who emmigrated to Canada. He seemed to be very happy there. He was like all those Irish people who tried to find a better life in the West. In the first World War about 600,000 young Canadians were asked to join the British soldiers on the European front. At that time the population of Canada was 8,000,000 people ! I could not believe it when I heard this. My wife sometimes says that I am deaf. (joke) I will try to check it because this sounds unbelievable. Anyway the young Belgian man joined the Canadian army and went back to the country where he was born and where he grew up. Now he lies in Flanders fields. His gravestone is a Canadian one with the picture of a maple leaf on it.

Yes, we only live once. If I would have more time then I would make a very dramatized documentary about this story. Sometimes I regret that I started making films only 20 years ago.

Charity
What they also said in this concert : why do young people try to emmigrate ? Because they want a better life. It's also today like that. Imagine that you live in a poor country. You don't have money to buy things, not only a camera, but also essential things like food and drinks. Every year in November funds are raised in Belgium to help people in their own countries. It's called the "11.11.11 fund raising action". For years and years I put envelopes for charity in each letterbox of a part of Willebroek, the town where I lived before.

Polish emmigrants
We sometimes criticize the fact that so many Polish and other foreigners "invade" our countries. We sometimes forget they we need them. we ask them to come. In Guernsey I noticed that young foreign girls found a job in pubs and hotels ("The Deerhound"-"La Vilette Hotel" etc...)It's like that in other parts of the UK and also on the Continent. In fact they are just like our forefathers who emmigrated to the USA, to Canada, to New Zealand, etc... Isn't this a good theme to make an interesting documentary about ?

Now it's time to edit one of my films. I'm too talkative on this forum.