Hellfire Corner - The Great War - At the Going Down of the Sun

JACKY PLATTEEUW

AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN.......

[Image]
Chester Farm Cemetery, Zillebeke
Copyright © Jacky Platteeuw, 2001

TRENCHES: ST. ELOI

Over the flat slope of St. Eloi
A wide wall of sandbags. Night,
In the silence desultory men
Pottering over small fires , cleaning their mess-tins.

To and fro, from the lines.
Men walk as on Piccadily,
Making paths in the dark..

Through scattered dead horses,
Over a dead Belgian's belly.

The Germans have rockets.
The English have no rockets.
Behind the line, cannon, hidden, lying back miles.

Before the line, chaos:
My mind is a corridor.
The minds about me are corridors.
Nothing suggests itself.
There is nothing to do but keep on.

LIEUTENANT THOMAS ERNEST HULME

`B'Company, Ist BattalionHonourableArtillery Company.
Naval Siege Battery, Royal Marine Artillery.
Born: 16th September 1883. Staffordshire.
Educated: High School, Newcastle-under-Lyne, St. John's College, Cambridge.

Killed: 28th September 1917. Aged 34 years.

Coxyde (Koksijde) Military Cemetery, Belgium.

CHESTER FARM CEMETERY

Location: Take the road from Ypres to Armentières (N365). About 3 miles down this you will see, on your left hand side, the bunkercomplex of "Lankhof ". A little bit further the magnificent "Bedford House Cemetery". Continue for about ½ mile on your left you will see the CWGC markers for different cemeteries. Follow the markers. First you will pass "Spoilbank Cemetery" a little further you will find "Chester Farm Cemetery".

Return to the "At the Going Down of the Sun" start page

Return to the Hellfire Corner Contents Section

Load images to see the counter