Brothers in Arms

 It's a short drive from Polygon Wood to the outskirts of Zonnebeke, which is itself close to Passchendaele. We're stopping for lunch at Cafe Taverne de Dreve, owned and run by Johan Vandewalle. He's an extraordinary man.

This is the back wall to Johan's cafe, an immediate hint of a special connection to Australian forces.

Under the Australian Army Rising Sun badge, is inscribed : "In dedication of the Anzacs who fought here during The Battle of Polygon Wood, Sept - Oct 1917".

There's a big story here, and this wall is just the start of it. For me, the story began back at the Buttes New British Cemetery, at the grave of John Hunter. But there is a lot more to it.

John  was the eldest of 7 sons of Henry and Emily Hunter from Nanango, Queensland. The military story begins when 25-year-old Jim Hunter  volunteered on 23rd October 1916. However, his older brother (and close friend) John thought it his duty to protect his younger brother and volunteered as well two days later. Both were drafted to the 49th battalion, a unit that consisted mostly of  Queenslanders. Jim was quickly promoted to Lance Corporal, but was satisfied with the rank of Private if he could stay with his elder brother John.

In September 1917, the 49th Battalion was sent up to the front line for the Battle of Polygon Wood. At dawn they would attack, but just before the attack started, John was sent out to investigate a piece of shiny metal in no-man’s land. As John crawled out, he was thrown back by the explosion of an artillery shell and was severely wounded. He managed to crawl back to his own trenches, but died in his brother’s arms. Jim had to go in for the attack, but later brought the body of his elder brother John to a temporary cemetery at Westhoek and buried him with his own hands. He lovingly and carefully wrapped the body in a standard Army issue ground sheet, a rubber one, so it would preserve the body well.

 Jim promised to come back after the war and take the human remains of his elder brother John back to Australia. He did indeed return in 1918, only to see that the terrain was so badly destroyed by artillery shelling that he had no idea where the graves were, and he had no idea where to start digging for the body.  The Hunter family record that as Jim drew his last breath, he called out the name of his brother, buried somewhere in the far-away  Flanders Fields.

There are thousands of bodies undisturbed and undiscovered in the earth in the former battlefields of France and Belgium. But during road works to lay a new gas pipe line in the hamlet of Westhoek in 2006, workers uncovered human bones. Johan Vandewalle, an amateur archaeologist and long-time collector of war memorabilia, was called. Two sets of human remains were identified, and the site was closed down for the day. Johan, though, returned several times through the night to ensure souvenir hunters did not disturb the remains.

The next day, with more specialists involved, three relatively complete skeletons were uncovered, lying close together, wrapped in blankets, their personal effects removed - evidence that they had received proper burial. A few days later, a fourth set of skeletal remains were found, just under the edge of the road. This suggested there may well be more bodies under the road, and indeed that was where a fifth body was recovered, John Hunter. One of those present, Franky Bostyn, curator of the Memorial Museum Passchendaele, later said "the remains presented a mummy-like impression. Removal of the sheet was an emotional moment, particularly because of the remnants of clothing."

Later investigations confirmed that the 4th Division used this site as a battlefield cemetery, but exhumation units after the war had missed locating some of the men buried there. Further research established a list of eight men unaccounted-for when cemetery lists and memorial walls were cross-checked. An appeal for descendants of these men to come forward for DNA testing, is what led to the positive identification of two of the bodies, Sergeant George Calder. and Private John Hunter. Both are now re-buried in Polygon Wood at Buttes New British Cemetery, together with their three as-yet un-named comrades.

I wish I had known this fuller story when I spoke with Johan in his cafe. There is so much more I would have liked to ask him. From our tour guide Jo, I knew that he was the driving force behind the "Brothers in Arms Memorial Park" project, which I was still to see, and I had already been upstairs in the cafe to look through a very complete museum of war-time artefacts, put together over his many years of battlefields archaeology. I suppose there's only so much you can take in when you're continually both looking backward in time and absorbing the present moment. At least it gives a very solid platform for later research - I have now seen these places, contemplated these graves, come to know more names, more stories.

It's now time to see the "Brothers in Arms Memorial Park". 

Behind Johan's cafe, and looking at the AIF mural, is another beautifully tended park. Its central feature is an arresting sculpture.

"Brothers in Arms"
Jim Hunter cradling his dying older brother John.

You approach the sculpture along an extended raised platform of blue-grey Belgium stone. Its 64m length symbolises both the years Jim lived without John, and also the 'no-man's land' between the trenches, where so many lives were lost.

Heading the interpretive panel is a studio photo of the Hunter brothers, Jim standing and John seated.

 But this is not a memorial just for the Hunter brothers, it is a memorial for all siblings, brothers and sisters, who served in the Great War., when at least one of those was lost.

The point of this memorial is to reflect on the family tragedies caused by war, then and now.

Johan Vandewalle provided the inspiration for this Memorial , and teams of financiers, philanthropists, planners from Belgium and Australia made it happen.