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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Flanders Postcards


Cnock

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Mr Cnock, Do you know where the road junction is of post 86 ? By the shadow we are looking west.

Super post cards, thanks for posting them, they are really interesting to me.

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Cnock.

Very generous of you to take the time to post these up. Real gems everyone of them and a credit to you.

Mebu.

It's hard to believe this is the same place!

Cheers all.

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These are all superb photos and show the utter destruction of the buildings and landscapes in the war zone. Is there any book available in English telling the story of the return of the populations and the rebuilding of the homes etc? There must be a wealth of information out there somewhere and many more poignant photos like those posted by Aurel (See link). We hear so much about the soldiers but as far as I can see little of the effect of the war on the populations of Belgium and France.

GWF Topic

Norman

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Is there any book available in English telling the story of the return of the populations and the rebuilding of the homes etc?

Norman

Norman

That is a very good question. Perhaps worthy of posing in a new thread so it doesn't get lost?

Roger

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These are all superb photos and show the utter destruction of the buildings and landscapes in the war zone. Is there any book available in English telling the story of the return of the populations and the rebuilding of the homes etc? There must be a wealth of information out there somewhere and many more poignant photos like those posted by Aurel (See link). We hear so much about the soldiers but as far as I can see little of the effect of the war on the populations of Belgium and France.

GWF Topic

Norman

Hi Norman a book i downloaded from archive.org that deals with this topic is "Out of the Ruins" by George B Ford, published in 1919.I have not a clue how to find its listing but you might have a try.Also from the same source "France the Reconstruction 1919" by Brown Brothers. john

Edited by munster
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Thanks everybody

and for Staanijzer Hoek I have to look on a WWI map

regards,

Cnock

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for Staanijzer (between Mesen and Wijtschate)

 

Cnock

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URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/196/pass1b.jpg/]pass1b.jpg[/url]

Cnock

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URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/poelp1.jpg/]poelp1.jpg[/url]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Poelkapelle

Cnock

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I know that I am repeating myself, but these postcards are just fantastic. More!!

Roger

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John (Post 97) many thanks for the links. I cannot even begin to understand the appalling situation that the people returned to post 1918. A charnel house and desolated landscape with the added horror of unexploded munitions everywhere. Just the things that we take for granted such as the sewage and water systems must have been destroyed in the conflict, with Belgium suffering in particular because there was very little respite from the fighting throughout the war. The propect of starting to work the land again beggars belief.

Regards

Norman

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Worth remembering that when we look at the photos we are looking at where peoples homes, farms and businesses once stood and were devastated.

From Out of the Ruins

1919

A few months ago I came down over the Passchendaele Ridge, looking for the town of Poelkappelle; all of the country around in every direction was a billowy sea of shell-holes and trenches, the shell-holes often so close together that one could not walk between them. I came to a crossroads where there was a great British tank half buried in the mud, and to my surprise I discovered that I was in the very center of what had been the town of Poelkappelle. Even the ruins of the houses were so churned into the soil that the land appeared in no way different from the country round about. The only living thing as far as the eye could see in that great waste was a lone man digging. He was trying to find the silver he had buried in his garden, but he said he had no idea where to begin his search ; he did not know where his garden had been ; he could not guess where his house had stood, nor, for that matter, where his street had run.

Norman

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these postcards are just fantastic. More!!

Roger

I am really enjoying looking at your postcards, no 101 is especially poignant as my grandad was a driver in the RE.

Mandy

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Staanijzer Hoek now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say this is the direction the camera was looking in post #89 (the road bends to the right in the distance).

The shells were about where now the two wooden posts are.

Roel

post-5443-0-31298200-1325799319.jpg

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Roel, I had them as being on the opposite side of the road, where the thick white Stop line is, or the broken white stone? ie looking from Houthem, not from Mesen?.

Regards Peter

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I had two reasons for choosing this spot.

It's the only spot where the road in the distance bends to the right.

Plus the road coming from the right in post #89 seems to move a little upward going to the left. As it does in the position I took.

But I can be wrong ofcourse.

Roel

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