ZNany tylko bogu-known unto god
Belgium because of geographical location
it was an arena of warfare during both of World Wars. The evidence of this is numerous military cemeteries, monuments or encountered in various places, tanks, guns and other military equipment used during war by armies. Probably the largest concentration of war cemeteries is in the city of Ieper and its surroundings. In these areas, during the First World War, there were four battles about Ieper, in which several hundred thousand soldiers were killed.
In the third battle, called the Battle of Passchendaele (3 July-10 February 1917 year), Germany, seeing the effectiveness of previous tests, sprayed gas. This time it was a mustard gas, which the French soldiers gave the name Iperyt. The cruelty of this war is reminiscent of military cemeteries scattered around the area, there are 156 here. They are encountered between single family housing estates, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, among maize crops. |
The Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper makes a huge impression. Monument in honor of several tens of thousands of British soldiers and the British community (except for soldiers from New Zealand who have their own monument). Inside, on the walls, were engraved the names of 54.389 officers and soldiers who died in Ypres before 16 August 1917, whose graves were never found.
Also a magnificent monument, in the form of a five-pointed star, built near Bastogne, on the Mardasson hill, to commemorate the tens of thousands of American soldiers who died during the bloody battles in the Ardennes during World War II, is a great example of memory and homage to the fallen heroes.