Site John McCrae ( nl, Kanaaldijk - site John McCrae) is a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

memorial site near

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is named after the Canadian physician

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

John McCrae Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918) was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the ...

, MD (1872–1918), author of the famous poem "

In Flanders Fields "In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and f ...

", which he composed while serving at this site in 1915.

Location

Site John McCrae is located directly adjacent to the

Ieperlee The Ieperlee (or ''Ypres-Ijzer Canal'') is a canalized river that rises in Heuvelland in the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows via the city of Ypres (Ieper) into the Yser at Fort Knokke. The river is long. Its name is derived from '' ...

(Ypres Canal), about halfway in between the centre of Ypres and the centre of

Boezinge Boezinge (; vls, Boezienge) is a village in the municipality of Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. Boezinge can be reached via the N369 road in the direction of Diksmuide. It was an independent municipality until 1977. History Boezin ...

, about 2.5 km from each. The memorial site is set in between Diksmuidseweg (N369) in the west and the

in the east, and can - for the purpose of orientation - be roughly divided into four sections: The south-west of the site is now occupied by the Essex Farm CWGC Cemetery. The north-western quarter is privately used as farmland, while the north-east and south-east are partially wooded and dominated by the artificially constructed earthen ridge of the

embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railwa ...

, which runs parallel to the

. In the centre of the memorial site are the remains of concrete bunkers used by a British Advanced Dressing Station, while separate memorials to

and his poem ''

'' are just to the east of these bunkers. In the north-eastern quarter of the memorial site are the remains of emergency housing provided by the Belgian government for the local population during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, while the most visible landmark in the south-eastern quarter of the site is the memorial to the

49th (West Riding) Infantry Division The 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division fought in the First World War in the trenches of the Western Front, in the fields of France and Flanders. During the Second World War, the divis ...

on the ridge of the dyke.

Landmarks

British Advanced Dressing Station

During the

, the

was part of the frontline. It linked the

Ypres Salient The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War. Ypres district Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. ...

, held by the French and English, to the

Yser Front The Yser Front (french: Front de l'Yser, nl, Front aan de IJzer or ), sometimes termed the West Flemish Front in British writing, was a section of the Western Front during World War I held by Belgian troops from October 1914 until 1918. The front ...

, held by the Belgian Army. Because of its location close to the frontline, the canal bank was chosen by the British as the site of an Advanced Dressing Station. During the

Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...

in April–May 1915, a first basic medical station for British Army casualties was established in rough dugouts cut into the western bank of the canal. The original crude dugouts in the canal bank were expanded into a dressing station by 1917 and reinforced with concrete. They gradually developed into a series of rooms and a larger medical station was built up with huts to cope with larger numbers of wounded. The Advanced Dressing Station was also equipped with a railway line, narrow gauge railway lines and camps to cope with the huge number of wounded soldiers from the northern part of the

. The land south of the farm known by Allied soldiers as "Essex Farm" was used as a dressing station cemetery from April 1915 to August 1917. The

buried their dead of 1915 in Plot I. Many burials were made without definite plan.CWGC: Essex Farm Cemetery, access date 2015-05-12
/ref>

Memorials to ''In Flanders Fields''

In Flanders fields and other poems, handwritten

, MD fought in the

second battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...

when the German army launched one of the first chemical attacks in the history of war. They attacked the Canadian position with

chlorine gas Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is ...

on 22 April 1915, but were unable to break through the Canadian line, which held for over two weeks. In a letter written to his mother, McCrae described the battle as a "nightmare": "For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds.... And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way." Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how

poppies Poppies can refer to: *Poppy, a flowering plant *The Poppies (disambiguation) - multiple uses *''Poppies (film)'' - Children's BBC remembrance animation *"Poppies", a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1976 album ''Radio Ethiopia'' *"Poppies", th ...

quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance at the Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station. There are two memorials to McCrae and his poem on the site: a small

lozenge Lozenge or losange may refer to: * Lozenge (shape), a type of rhombus *Throat lozenge, a tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to suppress throat ailments *Lozenge (heraldry), a diamond-shaped object that can be placed on the field of ...

-shaped plaque ( Albertina Marker) just off Diksmuidseweg (N369) and a larger wall tablet close to the bunkers used by the Advanced Dressing Station.

49th Infantry Division Memorial

The

Memorial is immediately behind the cemetery, on top of the canal bank. It is shaped like an obelisk and accessed via a flight of stairs leading up the canal bank from Essex Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery.

Essex Farm CWGC Cemetery

This

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

war cemetery A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be ...

was designed by Sir

Reginald Blomfield Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (20 December 1856 – 27 December 1942) was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Early life and career Blomfield was born at Bow rectory in Devon, w ...

. There are 1,200 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Essex Farm CWGC Cemetery. 103 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 19 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

Belgian emergency housing

In the north-eastern quarter of the memorial site, partially hidden by trees, are the remains of former shelters that were used as emergency housing provided by the

Belgian government The Federal Government of Belgium ( nl, Federale regering, french: Gouvernement fédéral, german: Föderalregierung) exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretary of state ("junior", or deputy-mini ...

for the local population during the

. These were constructed using pre-fabricated curved concrete elements, covered with metal sheets and then with earth.

Gallery

File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae1.jpg, Information tablet File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae3.jpg, Information tablet File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae2.jpg, Information tablet File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae10.jpg, Bunkers used by the Advanced Dressing Station File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae9.jpg, Bunkers used by the Advanced Dressing Station File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae5.jpg, Advanced Dressing Station, memorial to refurbishment File:Monument an John Mc Crae.jpg, ''In Flanders Fields'' memorial File:Inflandersfields.jpg, ''In Flanders Fields'' memorial File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae6.jpg, ''In Flanders Fields'' memorial File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae4.jpg, ''In Flanders Fields'' memorial File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae7.jpg, canal dyke File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae8.jpg, canal dyke and 49th Infantry Division Memorial File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae15.jpg, 49th Infantry Division Memorial, front inscription File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae14.jpg, 49th Infantry Division Memorial, back inscription File:Ypres Kanaaldijk Site John McCrae13.jpg, canal dyke behind the 49th Infantry Division Memorial File:Boezinge - Site John McCrae 2.jpg, Ruins of Belgian emergency housing File:John McCrae, Essex Farm Military Cemetery.jpg, ''In Flanders Fields'' Albertina Marker-plaque off Diksmuidseweg

References

External links

{{Commons category, Site John McCrae
Essex Farm Cemetery/John McCrae memorial site

Site John McCrae

www.cwgc.org
World War I memorials in Belgium World War I cemeteries in Belgium Ypres Salient