WWI from Ieper

Today, we took a long train ride to Ieper, a city of the former war front of World War I, where the trenches and war cemeteries are also located. We received a lecture by Wouter Sinaeve, who grew up in the city, heavily influenced by the aftermath of the war. We then spent a good amount of time in the interactive museum “In Flanders Fields” on WWI. Lastly, we attended the Last Post Memorial Concert, to commemorate all the men who died in WWI.

I was most impressed by the opening word of Wouter’s lecture. He asked why anyone would want to care about the war when the war is well done and over with. I actually asked that question when I studied WWI in high school, and the feeling of not caring about the war was even stronger because I didn’t feel any connection to that part of history: my parents are born and raised in the Philippines. They moved to America, so I’m far removed from the rest of my family in the Philippines, let alone European history. So I had no interest in learning about it! But fortunately, Wouter sparked my interest since he actually grew up with the aftermath of the war. He would walk around and find bullets on the ground, remnants of grenades and other weaponry. He has access to the cemeteries and what the city looked like before and after the war. He grew up surrounded by people who would tell stories of the war. I could tell just by the way he delivered his lecture with great enthusiasm and energy that he was greatly influenced by the aftermath of the war, and this enthusiasm and energy, along with being in the land where this major event happened, finally made me interested in European history.

Figure 1: The interior of the Memorial for WWI. The carved writings  are just a portion of the names of  the people who died on the battlefield.

He mentioned a couple things in his lecture that interested me. The first is that the reason why WWI existed was so that “this war will be the one to end all wars. If you kill off everybody, then the peace will begin.” My opinion of this statement is heavily influenced by the fact that I know the result of the war, but killing off everybody and hoping peace will start by killing off the people who disagree with you is not going to bring peace to the world. War, as seen from the WWI memorial in Ieper, results in 55,000 deaths. Peace can only be found when people understand each other. All human conflicts result from misunderstanding or miscommunication, which is why the Dutch way of communicating and having everyone’s opinions expressed is ideal. Clear communication and the willingness to understand other people is what will develop peace between people.

Figure 2: The German uniform for war. Observe how the helmet's horn at the top of the head is used to impress people.

The second set of facts that interested me is how the uniforms and helmets of the armies were mostly designed to impress people. The German helmet had a horn sticking out of the head to impress civilians whenever they walked the streets of Germany. The German front line can also impress the opponent on the other of the field by wearing the helmet. Unfortunately, the helmet didn’t really offer the soldier any protection, so I wondered why soldiers wore dysfunctional armor. What’s the point of impressing people, and is it worth it to the point where you sacrifice the necessary function of your clothing to impress people? When a person tries to impress someone, they desire to catch the attention of the other person, so German troops catching the attention of civilians would be beneficial when they gain the support of their country for the war, but impressing the opponents on the battle field isn’t necessary. If anything, it would be best if they could hide themselves from the enemy so they can use stealth to defeat the enemy. After having these thoughts, Wouter started lecturing on how the German and French armies altered their war gear in order to better protect and suit their soldiers.

Figure 3: A display of some of the long range weapons used in battle, such as the machine gun.

It was very interesting to see all the types of weapons used in the war. Grenades were engineered to explode and hit people surrounding the grenade, increasing the chances of killing people. Chemistry was also used to create a lethal weapon via chlorine gas! I find it hard to believe people would actually go that far to find a way to kill people, but most of these long range weapons were created in order to make it much easier to kill another person without seeing it. Wouter shared the testimony of a soldier who killed another person with a deadly club and how that greatly affected him the rest of his life. I think it is safe to say that people are greatly affected by death. There were many sections in the museum dedicated to how people didn’t want to nurse the soldiers because they knew they would eventually face near death situations again. Nobody wants to see another person die, let alone deliberately take another person’s life. In general, people are not naturally built to kill other people, unless they are trained and raised to know nothing else, but everyone was born with emotions to experience, a mind to think, and willpower to choose what to do. Perhaps when everyone is trained or raised to use their minds, emotions, and willpower to understand other people and respect their viewpoints in life, then war may never come up as the solution to peace again.