Elin Gregory

Ypres – though the lads who went there tended to call it Wipers.

Click on the picture for access to the list, Last but one chance!

Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War – a conflict that finally put paid to the notion that war was glorious and buried it under a crossroads with a stake through its heart.

My little town did its best to play its part and sent a battalion of young men. They arrived on the front line to take part in the assault upon the Ypres Salient on February 14th 1915 and by May 12th 1915 so many were dead that the battalion was disbanded and the few survivors moved to other units.

Another battalion was raised. They went out in 1917, just in time for a big push and 3 months later, again, the battalion was disbanded and the survivors moved to other units.

Of the 1500 men who went out 80 returned. Of the officers of the battalion, one survived the war.  I don’t have the heart to post pictures.

The Menin Gate at Ypres

Interior of the Menin Gate showing the names of some of the 54896 men who disappeared into the mud of the battlefield and whose fate remains unknown.