SEVEN YEARS AGO

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18185, 23 September 1924, Page 10

SEVEN YEARS AGO

GRAVENSTAFEL MEMORIAL. (specially written foe ■ "the press.") (By J. T. Pemberton.) TPKES, August 2. Whereas the New Zealand" Division had 3700 casualties in.the Battle of Messines, which was a brilliant sueeess, the losses at the attack on Gravenstafel and the eight days that followed were 6075, and the action ended in tragic failure. In the attack ;on Belle'vue. the New -Zeah.uide.rs .were called upon to -perform an impossible-task, and in-their •atrejtnpt they, 'shed- thetr .blood like'water. ;. The storming "of Messines Ridge was carried out under the most desirable weather conditions, and after the most perfect preparation. The storming of Passchendaele Ridge was the greatest tragedy of the New Zealand Division in Flanders. It was undertaken without preparation against uncut wire and by worn-out troops amidst.a wilderness of mud and in the drenching October rains. Just for the' hour that the 3s ew Zealand party andthe citizens -and children of Passchendaele • assembled- round-, the. monument'to-day the rain'fell"heavily.' It was, perhaps, appropriate; 'lt was the only thing that could give the slightest indication of the conditions of this fateful, God-forsaken area in October of 1917. Close up to the small section on which the Gravenstafel Memorial stands the fields of corn arc ready for the reaping. There will be many who will remember these forlorn crossroads beyond Otto-Farm, and five hundred' vards before * arriving at Waterloo ".Farm, the. ..headquarters, of the. battalions, in. th'p later attack on Bellevue. •■ . , . -, . Once success had been achieved in the Battle of Broodseindc on October 4th Gravenstafel Crossroads became a dump to which the carrying parties made their desperate journeys through the awful quagmires. Just below the crossroads on the Wieltje road there are concrete shelters still- intact, lhero are pill-boxes scattered freely over the countryside, and there is a wooden cross over a German soldier's grave at the crossroads.' ' There is little else to remind one of the horrors of seven years a<ro The Hanebeck- is an' orderly stream. Van Mculcn, Docky Farm, Korek, Waterloo Farm, Fleet Cottage, Riverside, and Aviatik Farm groups of red-roofed buildings. Men and women come and go, who, though they transformed the wilderness, have little knowledge of the deep s_aeredness in which this area-of-Belgium is held by the many thousands-of British and New Zealand people whose loved ones made here the. last great sacrifice. The surroundings here are not beautiful like those at- Messines, but .New Zealand-plants and shrubs and English trees set hi the small garden about-the monument have taken on Vigorous growth, and will help to make •an arresting picture amidst otherwise uninteresting landscape. But no area of land in Flanders can carry with it so many grim memories to tne New Zealand soldier who struggled against overwhelming odds during those Says in October, 1917. At point visible the .new Passchendaele fresh from the builders' be seen, uninteresting, insignificant, but it bears a name which .will be known to the generations in the centuries tocome.

"Letters of Blood." Sir James Allen, who - unveiled the memorial himself, recalled the strenuous days of 1917. As the ram fell.on those who had gathered round the monument we heard again the 'grim story of the hardships, the gallantry, the desperate deeds against overwhelming. odds, tne noble self-sacrifice in an attempt .to obey an order which was beyond ;human accomplishment. ■ ■ • iSir Alexander Gddley and.the Hon. James- Craigie also spoke : and then■ the •Burgomaster of Passchendaele paid his tribute to'the glorious-dead. :,'■.. ..:.' : "In the-name 'of the" village of Passchendaele," he said, "I accept .grated ■fully, on the. ground of Gravenstafel, where the British weapons gained so much fame, to behold in honour the memorial that now will proclaim for centuries, to our population, to the passerby, and later to posterity, %e high 6oul and mind. of..the soldiers of King George V. who fought here. "Passchendaele, Gravenstafel —two names unknown before; 1914. Four years' gigantic struggles on this, western point of the salient of Ypfes made the British legions who excelled themselves here write these names with letters of blood, but with rays of pure glory. Now is the name of our little, village known all around the World, and for long vears it will be pronounced in the British Empire as the place where, from all its larger countries and Dominions, came proud, stout, and brave champions to combat for the freedom' of the world. • Passchendaele will for.ever remember the (valiants fallen here, and . recollect upon tho ground of Gravenstafel, that one of the longest and also most valiant deeds of the British armies was acted in this place. Glory-and honour on your sons who died here the death of heroes." -

At Messines. beautiful wreaths were laid on the monument from the Federation Nationals des -Anciens Combatants d'Ypr.es .et . Inyalides, from the Secretaire"General du Comite Mixto Anglo-Beige de Sepultures Militaires, from the Association Nationale no's Tombes, the" British Leprion in.Belgium, the. British Arniv, -the- Government and people of New Zealand. and- a nunvber' from the people of. Messines. At. GravenstafeUthe donors of the. wrenths were for the most part the same.. The citizens, and the school children of Passchendaele sent floral tributes,-and some of the inhabitants round . Grave'nstafol had made a wreath from their.own'gar-, dens and laid it on the monument.