<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The next stop on the tour didn’t have anything to do with World War One.
\nWerken has a historic Catholic Church with a “Way of the Cross” outside the
\nbuilding around the outside of the cemetery and church grounds. The rain
\nhad let up a bit, so I stopped as the Stations of the Cross are always
\ninteresting. Do they stop with the crucifixion, or do they continue to the
\nresurrection? Unfortunately this one only had 7 of the prescribed 13
\n(though most stop at 12 and skip the resurrection), and like most Catholic
\nChurches and their Stations of the Cross, they stopped with the crucifixion.<\/p>\n
But, two other things caught my eye! First was a small town memorial<\/a> Secondly, at the entrance into the cemetery was the now-quite-recognizable It was only a brief respite. The rain has returned and it’s now really ————————– The next stop on the tour didn’t have anything to do with World War One. Werken has a historic Catholic Church with a “Way of the Cross” outside the building around the outside of the cemetery and church grounds. The rain had let up a bit, so I stopped as the Stations of the Cross … Continue reading Werken and the New Zealand Pilot<\/span>
\nerected in 1920 to the town’s sons who had died in the war. At the bottom
\nof the memorial were the words “Alles voor Vlaandren voor Christus” (All
\nfor Flanders and for Christ). The letters AVV AVC (or AVV VVK) were often
\narranged in a cross with the center V as the crux (see the Peace Gate<\/a> picture at Diksmuide, or the view<\/a> from the Peace Tower, for example). This phrase was
\nthe rallying cry during The Great War for the Flemish separatists.<\/p>\n
\ngreen War Graves Commission sign meaning that there are graves of British
\nsoldiers in the cemetery. Since the guidebook I’m following had only to do
\nwith World War One and made no mention of this cemetery, I looked for the
\ngraves. I found a row of six graves<\/a>, all airmen who died in 1941. One was
\nlisted as being a New Zealand Air Force pilot. The rest looked to be bomber
\ncrewmen. As I remember, the New Zealand Air Force provided fighter cover
\nfor the British Lancaster bombers in the early days of the war. This fellow
\ndied at age 26, someone’s son, buried a very long way from home.<\/p>\n
\ncoming down!<\/p>\n
\n
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"