Me, Dave and Cliff decided to go visit the Passchendaele Museum in Zonnebeke on the way back from Crisis this year.  It's definitely a recommended visit if you're in the area, packed with information and displays, including a lot of artefacts recovered from the trenches.  The museum is structured so that you follow the progression of the war as you move through it, ending with a trip down into a reconstructed underground tunnel system, and then outside into a set of trenches.

I took quite a few pics while we were there, which can all be found here: http://s1124.photobucket.com/user/PendrakenMiniatures/slideshow/Passchendaele%20Museum

Here's a selection of the best ones:










15 men housed in one room:



Dave stood next to the big gun:









Outside in the trench:

Very somber. Good thing to visit.

Good pics of a subject that should not be forgotten, Leon. Am I the only one who finds the one of the German helmet, greatcoat and boots vaguely unsettling? 

Quote from: Hertsblue on 15 November 2013, 08:19:50 AM
Good pics of a subject that should not be forgotten, Leon. Am I the only one who finds the one of the German helmet, greatcoat and boots vaguely unsettling? 

No Ray..Somehow it is a little disturbing.
Good pics Leon.
Cheers - Phil

the war memorial/museum at Dixmude is a lot better in my opinion...As they have a full scale bunker there,

The Passchendale one is great as well though as is the small disorganised one at Sanctuary Wood

There's also a very good one at Hooge Crater and the reconstructed German trenches at Wytschaete (White Sheet as the Tommies called it) are very good as well.

Good these museums exist: important this never falls from the collective memory.  Working in a school, I can genuinely say that the current generation of teens are very aware of, and respectful towards, the men who went through WWI.

Great photos.

Very true. The kids I used to take out to the Western Front were incredibly respectful in the cemeteries and around the various sites, and were always full of questions. Many had info about ancestors who had fought in the Great War that they brought with them; and of course some were looking for names on monuments. Let's hope Gove doesn't make History too boring for the kids of the future.

Oh, and the figure in front of the field gun is very realistic....

No pictures of Leon though! Was he really there ?

His image cannot be captured.

Quote from: fsn on 19 November 2013, 09:36:09 AM
His image cannot be captured.

No true - he obviously shaves, and had no shaving cuts last time I saw him. 

IanS

Obviously he gets one of the clones to shave him!

Quote from: fsn on 19 November 2013, 03:39:14 PM
Obviously he gets one of the clones to shave him!

Why bother to shave when you can just destroy the hairy clone and produce a brand new factory fresh clean shaven one?

I don't trust Dave with the camera, hence the lack of me in the pics.  Also, I hate being in pics...