Snapped As I Cycled By....

[poliphilo]

These landscapes a little to the north of the area that got fought over in the Great War, but they're comparably flat and loamy. It's not hard to imagine the state they'd be reduced to if you pounded them with heavy artillery for a few days.

Comments

[ron-broxted.livejournal.com]

Hill 60 is a mere bump in the road. Flooding was always a problem in the trenches. Each year half a dozen Flemish farmers die after ploughing up live ammo.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We were on the ridge above Ypres where they fought the battle of Paschendaele. "Ridge" is overstating it.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I like the photos. Very... stripy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[oakmouse]

*nods* Ditto for Waterloo; the soldiers complained about the heavy soft mud and the way the water pooled and stood after the rains the night before the battle. The growing grain didn't do much to help them, except provide bedding of a sort.

Very evocative photos!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

There must have been a lot of rain recently?
Or is bog-like the natural state of the land?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. We had been planning to go to Waterloo, but the battlefield tours had been shut down so they could do maintenance work on the site.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Flanders is very low-lying- and much of it is reclaimed marshland. It is kept habitable by a system of dykes and canals.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I was very conscious, all the time I was there, how the land has been repeatedly crossed and dug into by armies.

[oakmouse]

Well, hopefully you'll be able to go next time you're in Belgium. I hope to get there some day myself.