Guest Editorial

THE SOLDIERS PROJECT
by Ward Dossche

Early on the morning of April 8th 1915 private Achille Adhemar DELAFONTAINE, born February 4th 1898, conscripted in the 2nd company of the 1st regiment "Fusiliers" in 1914 bearing the serial number 61013 arrived at the Word War I battlefield near Diksmuide in Belgium to fight in a war he did not want, whom his fellow soldiers did not want and whom the German enemy on the other side of the river Ijzer did not want either.

A few minutes later he was hit by a stray bullet in the no-man's land position he occupied. His death did not suit a purpose and became a matter of statistics. His unit retreated and left his remains behind. They were buried by the Germans in a location described as the "railroad bridge near 'Drie Grachten'", his death was mentioned to the International Red Cross but his grave's marker was most likely destroyed in subsequent artillery duels and he became one of the many whom the fortunes of war denied a known grave.

Achille Ademar DELAFONTAINE was my grandmother's brother and would have been my great-uncle had I ever had the fortune of meeting him.

There have been millions of them belonging to different armies fighting each other and while doing so seeking the blessing of the same God. However, they have something remarkable else in common: in each and every case they were always someone's father, someone's brother or someone's child. Lost in the statistics and faded away in time but often deeply remembered in the hearts of the loved-ones that stayed behind! their children, their brothers and sisters, their father, their mother! In many cases their legacy was passed down the generations and even today they are remembered.

For years until her death in 1979 I've heard my grandmother talk about her brother and it was a pain for her there even was no grave to go to. Until she passed away she always kept his photograph displayed.

Eventually I started discovering the military cemeteries in Ypres Salient, an area very well known in English history as so many died there stuck in the mud, shot at, gunned, bombed, mined, gassed! They came from places like Edinburgh, Brighton, New Delhi, Rangoon, Marakech, Leopoldville, Kentucky! They were white, black, yellow and brown! They were Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, atheist! Many died thousands of miles from home for a cause they most likely did not understand!

But they died anyway. Many are remembered by a grave, a lot are not.

Quite likely one of the most impressive memorials worldwide to commemorate soldiers fallen during a war is the Menen Gate in Ypres (Belgium) where some 64.000 names are recorded of British MIA's. When they ran out of space to put more names other cemeteries in the neighbourhood received walls with panels and more panels. The total tally runs into several hundreds of thousand of soldiers missing in action in one geographically small area alone. When you reflect upon it and remember that everyone of these men was a son, a brother or a father then it is very difficult to fathom the human suffering that it must have caused.

The Ypres Memorial is unique though. Ever since in the 1920's somewhere local people, out of gratitude for the soldiers who gave their lives, started a daily "Last Post" ceremony. The ceremony got interrupted during the 2nd World War but resumed after and early November 2001 it was performed for the 25.000th time. The local firebrigade took it upon them to provide the buglers during all these years.

It is impressive, every evening whatever the weather nor time of the year at 8pm traffic comes to a complete stop, people become silent and the buglers play the "Last Post". It lasts about 75 seconds but echoes in the Arch of the gate and haunts you afterwards.

Every year on November 11th the 1918 Armistice is remembered by a special ceremony with the firefighters band from Devon (U.K.) and a bagpipe band from Scotland. I go there every year that evening with my children, they don't have to go but insist on coming along! There are no speeches, just one single voice saying these words:

They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
and in the morning
we will remember them.

The buglers play, poppy-wreaths are laid down! Poppys everywhere, paper ones, real ones and John McCrae's epic poem "In Flander's Fields" comes a bit to life. The bagpipes play a solemn hymn and the ceremony is terminated with a rendition of "God Save the Queen" sung by the thousands who are present there that evening every year.

Over the years it occurred to me that people from continents far away will never have the opportunity to attend such a ceremony but with our 21st century technology we have some solutions to offer and 2 ideas grew in my mind.

The first one was to create an internet site with video-images of the November 11th ceremony so that people as far away as New Zealand could click on the site and see as well as listen to the "Last Post" of November 11th 2001, see some photographs from Menen Gate, witness the singing of the British anthem.

You are all welcome at my site http://many-glacier.mine.nu/ypres/ to see for yourselves.

A second thing that's been nagging me over the years is that I've been confronted with so many people from all over the world looking for a grave-site, people from Australia who saved for 50-60 years to be able to make this one trip and spend a few minutes near a marker of someone they maybe only know from family history.

Also here technology has something to offer.

A while ago a Canadian started the Maple Leaf Legacy Project, it was his quest to put a photograph on the internet of every individual grave marker of a Canadian soldier killed anywhere in the world. He is talking about some 115.000 photographs, a huge site. To learn more about this you can visit this site: http://www.mllp.demon.co.uk/

Similar projects are now going for putting the graves of soldiers from New Zealand and Australia on the web.

I would like to take the next step and provide a virtual gravemarker on the internet for every soldier that fought, died and was buried or MIA during World War 1. The majority are British or from the British colonies plus French. There are also a lot of Belgians, there are Americans and let's not forget there were also German sons and brothers and fathers who were equally mourned by their loved-ones.

The project I am talking about is humongous, I have no clue whether it can be funded because it will take a shipload of money, I have no idea whether it can be achieved in my life-time (just turned 51 last week) but I do know one thing: I need partners and associates, people willing to spend time photographing, people willing to spend time building html-pages, people managing the site, people running the operation! there's a need for lobbyists, fundraisers, speakers, do-ers!

Many will be needed and therefore I am turning towards the Fido-community. In the past I've been amazed often enough to discover what kind of gems can be hidden in the sysop-community; I wonder now if some of these gems are left.

Lip-service is welcome but I need practical input. People volunteering must realize we're talking about years here and I have no clue of "how many". Certainly more than a decade, maybe even more than 2 decades. That is the kind of commitments I am looking forward to.

If we can assemble a dedicated taskteam that would be an important first step. Next would be a businessplan and see where the funding could be coming from.

You know my netmail-address. If not, it is 2:292/854. Via e-mail I can be reached at wd@skynet.be. If you think you can contribute in one way or the other then please let me know.

In any case let us remember that war has never been a solution in itself!