46 | Cycling World
At 8 pm every night at the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres,
Belgium, the traffi c stops, crowds gather in hushed silence and
three buglers step under the memorial arch, put their bugles
to their lips and sound the Last Post. Performed every night
since 1928, this is a show of gratitude from the Ypres citizens
for the 250,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers that died
in their fi elds a century ago and a poignant beginning to the
unique cycling tours devised by Green Jersey French Cycling
Tours founder and World War One enthusiast Charlie Bladon.
“Our tours range from 3 days for the Somme Battlefi eld tour
to a week for our fl agship tour – the Great War Battlefi elds
tour.”
Overall 600,000 soldiers
were killed in four major
battles and four years
of constant and
continuous fi ghting.
Given the sensitive and personal nature of the trips, however,
Charlie maintains they are always prepared to add a visit or
tailor a whole route to the interest of one group.
“One time we arranged a visit for a family to see where their
great uncle, a doctor, was commemorated on the Thiepval
Memorial. Doctors were ordered to stay behind the main
attack but like many he ignored the order and was killed. His
death was much mourned and we found records indicating
where the troops had buried him in a shell hole. By referring
to maps we were able to take his family to the exact spot he
died, where they laid a wreath 100 years later to the day.”
Overall 600,000 soldiers were killed in four major battles
and four years of constant and continuous fi ghting. Not only
British, French, Belgian and German soldiers, but also those
from countries as far fl ung as India, Canada, New Zealand,
Morocco, Tunisia and the West Indies. Many of their bodies
were never recovered; the Menin Gate is inscribed with
54,000 names of the missing and the memorial at Tyne Cot
has the name of a further 33,000 soldiers - a number that
dwarfs the 12,000 gravestones at the same site.
Many of the soldiers buried at Tyne Cot – the biggest British
war cemetery in the world and one of over 100 in the area
– were among the half a million soldiers of all nationalities
that were killed in Flanders’ fi elds in the famous Battle of
Passchendaele. As they cycle along the quiet and fl at roads,
riders will pass thousands of poppies that grow in the fi elds
where they died. Experienced and knowledgeable guides riding
with the customers mean that not only the large well-known
sites are visited, but also some small but equally moving ones.