Langemarck - Church in Ruins. And a Song About Poison Gas.

            The Postcard

A postally unused carte postale bearing an image of the appalling damage suffered by Langemarck Church early on in the Great War. 

By the end of the war the building had been reduced to a large, rounded, pile of rubble.

Enemy artillery during the Great War targeted churches, cathedrals and other tall buildings because of their value as observation posts. Shells aimed at churches which just missed their target tended to fall in the churchyards, throwing up gravestones, coffins and corpses.

'The Shell' by H. Smalley Sarson

'Shrieking its message the flying death
Cursed the resisting air,
Then buried its nose by a battered church,
A skeleton gaunt and bare.

The brains of science, the money of fools
Had fashioned an iron slave
Destined to kill, yet the futile end
Was a child's uprooted grave'.  

Langemarck and the Use of Poison Gas

Langemarck is about 4 miles north-east of Ypres, and it was near here that the Germans first used poison gas on a large scale on the 22nd. April 1915. 

They launched grenades carrying chlorine gas into the French and Canadian trenches. The Allies sustained massive casualties, but Canadian forces who bore the brunt of the chemical attacks managed to devise makeshift gas masks of urine-soaked rags, and so were able to hold their ground.

Although deploring this atrocity, the Allies did not take long to employ this weapon themselves, at Loos just 5 months later.

A Soldiers' Song About Poison Gas

'Bombed last night, and bombed the night before,
Going to get bombed tonight if we never get bombed
any more.
When we're bombed, we're scared as we can be.
Can't stop the bombing from old Higher Germany.

They're warning us, they're warning us
One shell hole for the four of us.
Thank your lucky stars there are no more of us
So one of us can fill it all alone.

Gassed last night, and gassed the night before,
Going to get gassed tonight if we never get
gassed any more.
When we're gassed, we're sick as we can be
For phosgene and mustard gas is much too 
much for me.

They're killing us, they're killing us,
One respirator for the four of us.
Thank your lucky stars that we can all
run fast,
So one of us can take it all alone'.

Cement House Cemetery

Cement House Cemetery is located west of Langemarck. The cemetery is still in use today, occasionally for concentrations of graves which have to be moved from other locations for various reasons.

It is where the remains of soldiers who continue to be found in the region are buried.  

There are now 3,576 Great War burials here, of which two thirds are unidentified.
   

Taken in: Belgique / West-Vlaanderen / Langemark (show map)

Taken on: September 2, 2011

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgic

nostalgia

Grande

Guerre

Great

War

destruction

devastation

rubble

45LCR65

Langemarck

church

eglise

carte

postale

Ypres

Germans

poison

gas

1915

atrocity

Allies

weapon

Loos

Cement

House

Cemetery

Ieper

soldier

song

bombed

last

night

before

scared

Germany

warning

shell

hole

lucky

stars

gassed

sick

phosgene

mustard

killing

respirator

churchyard

graves

Smalley

Sarson

uprooted

grave

corpses

gravestones

coffins « less

Sets appears in: • Belgium • Great War more » • Songs and Poems of the Great War « less

Camera: HP psc1400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	HP psc1400
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Paint Shop Pro
Show full info

Stats: 1,205 views / 1 comment