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".

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