Offer of photos general views

[Aurel Sercu]

(This posting dates from 26 Sept,

- was edited on 28 Sept, adding a few dozen more cemeteries in he list below,

- re-edited with a few more on 27 and 31 Oct. (Total now 112 cemeteries)

Thanks to those who have contacted me off Forum, and who by now have already received the requested photos.)

***

Combining my Great War interest with another (former) hobby, photography, in the past 3 years I have built up a collection of (digital) photos of CWGC cemeteries in the Ypres Salient.

My original plans with this collection, maybe even to make a complete inventory, have recently been discarded. But rather than letting them lie dormant on my hard disk, I wonder if other forum members would be interested in sharing them.

The offer in this thread my soon sink into oblivion, but who knows, someone may have a particular reason to want a photo or two of a CWGC cemetery in the Ypres Salient. (Maybe when being in the cemetery his camera batteries fell flat, or he had forgotten a spare film, or it was raining cats and dogs …)

So should someone be interested in obtaining one or more photos from the list of cemeteries below, please let me know. If you send me your email address off Forum, I will email the cemetery photo(s) you are interested in as soon as I can.

Just a few remarks :

1. Anyone who has tried to take a picture of a cemetery knows this can be a disappointing and frustrating experience. It is hardly ever possible to photograph the entire cemetery. (Think of Lyssenthoek Cemetery Poperinge, Tyne Cot Cemetery Zonnebeke, Bedford House Cemetery Zillebeke,…. And not everybody has the material means, like Iain M., to fly over the Salient and take aerial photos.)

2. The use of a wide angle camera of course is recommended in such cases. However, my digital camera only has a 5.8 mm lens, the equivalent to a 38 mm lens on a conventional camera. This moderate wide angle is not bad, but in many cases far from sufficient to capture the entire cemetery or even most of it. (On the other hand cameras with a wider angle than my moderate 38 mm angle tend to create a rather unrealistic impression as the proportions are too different from reality.)

3. It has not always been my intention to produce an ‘objective’ picture of the cemetery. Far from claiming artistic pretensions I think I can say that sometimes I try to obtain a photo a bit out of the ordinary. And if it involves lying on my stomach, or climbing the cemetery wall, or the base of the Cross of Sacrifice (when there are no other visitors ; my apologies to anyone who finds this disrespectful), or waiting for a quarter of an hour for the sky and the clouds to be more photogenic, well, I am willing to take that trouble.

4. All photos were taken in 2002-2004.

5. The number between brackets is the number of photos of which I find the quality sufficient. Normally this number is between 1 and 5 or 6. If you are interested, mention the desired number of photos (all, or just one or two representative photo).

6. For me emailing 1 or 5 or 6 photos hardly makes a difference. But the bad news to those with only a dial-up connection is that 99% of my photos are approx. 1600 x 1200 pixels (i.e. the ‘fine quality’ setting for my camera). So the photos are approx. 350 to 600 kilobytes. And I suppose getting them in with a dial-up connection might be a slow process. Of course I know that photos can be resized, but I ‘d rather not do that with my cemetery photos. Resizing is a simple thing, I know, but my technical problem is that first I would have to make copies of my originals, which for some reason I do not find a simple matter with the programme I use, and which certainly is (too) time-consuming for these hundreds of photos.

(When emailing several photos of course I can see to it that one email does not exceed more than approx. 1.5 MB, sending the photos in separate emails.)

7. The list below for the greater part contains cemeteries in the Ypres area, in Flanders. A dozen or so cemeteries however are just across the Belgian / French border, or in the Hazebrouck area (Département du Nord). I have marked them with *

8. I know my collection is far from complete, and I have no intention to complete it. There must be approx. 170 CWGC cemeteries in the Ypres area. I only have about 100 of them.

9. The list below contains 103 CWGC cemeteries in the Ypres area. If I take more photgraphs, I will add them to the list.

Later on I may add some 20 cemeteries in the Somme and Pas de Calais Départements (France).

10. I hope that if someone wants pictures of several cemeteries, it is because he or she is genuinely interested. So I would ask that requests for photos are limited to 10 at a time, for obvious reasons.

11. Unfortunately I cannot provide copies on CD since I have no CDRW drive.

12. Obviously if someone intends to use the photos (which are free) for commercial purposes, I would like to be informed.

Abeele Aerodrome Mil. Cem., Watou (4)

Aeroplane Cem., Ieper (2)

*Arnèke Brit. Cem., Arnèke (Nord) (3)

Artillery Wood Cem., Boezinge (5)

Bard Cottage Cem., Boezinge-Ieper (4)

Bedford House Cem., Zillebeke (4)

Belgian Battery Corner Cem., Ieper (3)

Berks Cem. Extension, Ploegsteert (2)

Blauwepoort Farm Cem., Zillebeke (2)

Bleuet Farm Cem., Elverdinge (3)

Brandhoek Mil. Cem., Vlamertinge (2)

Brandhoek New Mil. cem., Vlamertinge (1)

Brandhoek New Mil. Cem. 3, Vlamertinge (2)

Bridge House Cem., Langemark (2)

Bus House Cem., Voormezele (1)

Buttes New Brit. Cem., Zonnebeke (3)

Cabin Hill Cem., Wijtschate (3)

Canada Farm Cem., Elverdinge (4)

*Cassel Communal Cem., Cassel (Nord) (3)

Chester Farm Cem., Zillebeke (3)

* Cinq Rues Brit. Cem., Hazebrouck (Nord) (2)

Colne Valley Cem., Boezinge (4)

Coxyde Mil. Cem., Koksijde (4)

Divisional Cem. Dickebusch Road, Vlamertinge (3)

Dozinghem Mil. Cem., Westvleteren (1)

Dragoon Camp Cem., Boezinge (4)

Dranoutre Church Yard, Dranouter (1)

Dranoutre Mil. Cem., Dranouter (4)

Duhallow ADS Cem., Ypres (4)

*Ebblinghem Mil. Cem., Ebblinghem (Nord) (3)

Elzenwalle Brasserie, Voormezele (1)

*Esquelbecq Mil. Cem., Esquelbeck (Nord) (3)

Ferme Olivier, Elverdinge (2)

1st D.C.L.I. Cem., The Bluff, Zillebeke (3)

*Godewaersvelde Brit. Cem., Nord (2)

Godezonne Farm Cem., Kemmel (2)

Grootebeek Brit. Cem., Reningelst (4)

Gwalia Cem., Poperinge (5)

Hagle Dump Cem., Elverdinge (2)

Haringhe (Bandaghem) Mil. Cem. (1)

Hedge Row Trench Cem., Zillebeke (4)

Hop Store Cem., Vlamertinge (1)

Hospital Farm Cem., Elverdinge (6)

Huts Cem., Dikkebus (7)

Hyde Park Corner (R. Berks) Cem., Ploegsteert (3)

Irish House Cem., Kemmel (2)

Kemmel Chateau Mil. Cem., Kemmel (1)

Kemmel N° 1 French Cem., Kemmel (4)

Klein Vierstraat Brit. Cem., Kemmel (6)

La Belle Alliance Cem., Boezinge-Ypres (4)

La Clytte Mil. Cem., De Klijte, Reningelst (3)

*La Kreule Mil. Cem., Hazebrouck (Nord) (3)

La Laiterie Mil. Cem., Kemmel (3)

Lancashire Cottage Cem., Ploegsteert (1)

La Plus Douve Farm Cem., Ploegsteert (3)

Larchwood Cem. (Railway Cutting), Zillebeke (2)

* Le Peuplier Mil. Cem., Caestre (Nord) (4)

* Les Moëres Communal Cem., Les Moëres (Nord) (2)

Lindenhoek Chalet Mil. Cem., Kemmel (2)

Locre N° 10 Cem., Loker (1)

London Rifle Brigade Cem., Ploegsteert (2)

Maple Copse Cem., Zillebeke (4)

Mendinghem Mil. Cem., Proven (1)

Menion Road South Mil. Cem., Ypres (2)

*Mont Noir Cem., St. Jans-Cappel (2)

Motor Car Corner Cem., Ploegsteert (3)

Mud corner Cem., Comines-Warneton (1)

New Irish Farm Cem., St. Jan (Ypres) (3)

Nine Elms Brit. Cem., Poperinge (2)

No Man’s Cot Cem., Boezinge (4)

Oxford Road Cem., Ieper (3)

Packhouse Farm Shrine Cem., Wulvergem (3)

Paschendaele New Brit. Cem., Passendale (3)

Perth Cem. (China Wall), Zillebeke (3)

Ploegsteert Wood Mil. Cem., Warneton (4)

Pond Farm Cem., Wulvergem (4)

Poperinghe New Mil. Cem., Poperinge (4)

Potijze Chateau Grounds Cem., Ieper (1)

Potijze Chateau Lawn Cem., Ieper (1)

Potijze Chateau Wood (2)

Prowse Point Mil. Cem., Warneton (5)

Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) (2)

Ramparts Cem. Lille Gate, Ypres (4)

Ration Farm (La plus Douve) Annexe, Ploegsteert (2)

R.E. Farm Cem., Wijtschate (1)

Red Farm Cem., Vlamertinge (2)

Reninghelst Churchyard Cem., Reningelst (3)

Reninghelst New Mil. Cem., Reningelst (2)

Ridge Wood Cem., Voormezele (3)

Rifle House Cem., Ploegsteert (3)

Solferino Farm Cem., Brielen (5)

Spoilbank Cem., Zillebeke (4)

Suffolk Cem., Kemmel (4)

St. Quentin Cabaret Mil. Cem. (2)

Strand Mil. Cem., Ploegsteert (1)

Talana Farm Cem., Boezinge (3)

*Terdeghem Churchyard, Terdeghem (Nord) (2)

Toronto Avenue Cem., Ploegsteert (2)

Torreken Farm Cem. N° 1, Wijtschate (3)

Tuileries British Cem., Zillebeke (1)

Underhill Farm Cem., Ploegsteert (2)

Vlamertinghe New Cem., Vlamertinge (4)

Voormezele Enclosure N° 1 & 2, Voormezele (2)

Voormezele Enclosure N° 3, Voormezele (2)

White House Cem., St. Jan (Ypres) (2)

Woods Cem., Zillebeke (4)

*Wormhoudt Communal Cem., Wormhoudt (Nord) (2)

Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Cem., Wulvergem (2)

Ypres Reservoir Cem, Ieper (5)

Ypres Town Cem. (1)

Zandvoorde Brit. Cem., Zandvoorde (3)

Zillebeke Churchyard, Zillebeke (3)

Photo : Grootebeek British Cemetery, Reningelst

[Aurel Sercu]

Just bringing this topic up again, in order to inform Forum members who may be interested that I have completed the list of cemeteries above (from 56 to 103).

Aurel

[colin12]

That is a really super pic depicts real peace, well done, nothing on Etaples?

Colin

[Aurel Sercu]

Colin,

Anyone who has tried to take pictures at Etaples Mil. Cem. leaves with some degree of dissatisfaction and frustration. This cemetery is so impressive, but it is hardly possible to capture all of it, not only the sphere I mean, but also the sheer size. (Unless one has an extreme wide angle lens.)

I have a dozen or so, the 'classical' type, but this one is my favourite. Not typically Etaples I admit, but I like the light.

Aurel

[Aurel Sercu]

Just to say that I have added a few more to the list in the initial posting.

Aurel