A Road trip to Diksmuide

After lunching in the Market Place at Diksmuide, Bill and I walked the 5/15 minutes to the Ijzer Tower. This place is an odd combination of antiwar/peace museum and rabid Flemish Nationalism. Here you see Bill at the entry which is a replica WWI trench.Uber alles is the logo of Flemish nationalism "Alles Vor Vlamish, Vlamish vor Krest" (All for Flemish, Flemish for Christ.)
Twenty two plus stories up you get a great panorama of Diksmunde and the surrounding countryside. The historical parts of the museum about WWI were very well done with interior replicas of the trenches, underground living/dying and static warfare that marked the war until the Americans got involved.

Most of the Americans who volunteered for WWI were farm boys as most of America then was agricultural. Great Uncle "Ed" was one. The story Albert (Bill's dad) told was that he had gone to a field hospital with a minor wound and was to go back to the fighting. He did not want to go back and although he did not speak the same language as the nurses they were willing to smuggle him out. The women were missing a lot of marriageable age men and a big strong farm boy from Nebraska looked good. So no one ever heard of this uncle again. Tens of thousands of soldiers were MIA and AWOL after WWI and never heard from.