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Description
In 2019, I had been in Europe for most of the summer, spending time in Poland and then hopping on a train (as my pictures show) to a brief stop in Germany and on to Belgium. I spent a week outside of Brussels waiting to meet with two wonderful historians who met my family 4 years prior. In 2015 I came home one day to find scraps of metal on my kitchen table and a soldier's dog tag that was torn and warped. They had been dropped off by my Uncle, and were making their rounds around the family because my Great-Uncle Lane had finally been found. In elementary school my teacher had assigned a project to each student to write a report and present on a family member who had been in the military. I remember raising my hand and telling her that no one in my family had ever been in the military. She told me, every family has at least someone who had been in the military. You can imagine, I went home quite upset because I was convinced I would fail my project. Lo and behold, my mom shared some family history with me about my Great Uncle Lane who joined the call in WW2 in America and was never seen again. There were stories of his father always waiting for him to come home and how my grandmother who was quite young at the time hardly remembered him.

Back to 2015, the remains of Lane's plane had been found. He was a gunner in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He and his team flew to knock out a German supply line by blowing up a bridge. During this successful attempt, his plane was the first one to be shot down. As you can imagine, when the planes hit the ground, there is a big explosion. The debris was scattered all over this hillside, as you can see in the picture. A large pit is formed and then over time, these fill with rain water, soil and leaves, and more fill it in and the plane over the years is buried.

The historians, locals from Eastern Belgium and the Verviers area are pros at discovering military remains from both sides and recovering all sorts of artifacts. After governments give up the supposedly never ending search to bring lost soldiers home, they pick up the mantle and keep up the long search. 70+ years later these men met my family for a full honors funeral and ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

In 2019, as a new college graduate, I sought these men out to be told where my great-uncle's crash had been. They, so incredibly, met with me and took me right to the sight. The Battle of the Bulge location is now largely controlled and secured lands. It is owned and patrolled by both the military and forest rangers, I believe. That makes it doubly impossible to actually get onto these grounds unless you know the right people. The land where my Great Uncle landed was turned into and is no longer a tree farm. We walked through misty fields and over barbed wire fences to reach the location. I was just as curious about all the plants and insects around me as I was with the history.

What was left of the site is this giant pictured pit. I stayed on the edge and didn't not walk into it. The rest of our tour continued into the woods where I was shown dragon's teeth (barriers that acted as anti-tank technology), old pill boxes and bunkers, the naturally filled in remains of trenches and then out to no-man's land itself--now home to one of the rarest natural orchids in the world and some wild boars and other animals that now roam the very green preserve. In a place of such death, there was so much life as a result of the endless march of time.

This photo and others in my gallery will depict and share some of these different locations with you.

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Evangeline40003 Commissions Journal
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Editing Commissions
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Art Commissions
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Support & Follow My Work

Twitter: @ evangeline40003
Instagram: @ writingdaydreams2reality
Instagram Art: @ evangeline40003
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Patreon: Writingdaydreamstoreality
Webtoons: Wednesday Writing Weeklies

Description
In 2019, I had been in Europe for most of the summer, spending time in Poland and then hopping on a train (as my pictures show) to a brief stop in Germany and on to Belgium. I spent a week outside of Brussels waiting to meet with two wonderful historians who met my family 4 years prior. In 2015 I came home one day to find scraps of metal on my kitchen table and a soldier's dog tag that was torn and warped. They had been dropped off by my Uncle, and were making their rounds around the family because my Great-Uncle Lane had finally been found. In elementary school my teacher had assigned a project to each student to write a report and present on a family member who had been in the military. I remember raising my hand and telling her that no one in my family had ever been in the military. She told me, every family has at least someone who had been in the military. You can imagine, I went home quite upset because I was convinced I would fail my project. Lo and behold, my mom shared some family history with me about my Great Uncle Lane who joined the call in WW2 in America and was never seen again. There were stories of his father always waiting for him to come home and how my grandmother who was quite young at the time hardly remembered him.

Back to 2015, the remains of Lane's plane had been found. He was a gunner in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He and his team flew to knock out a German supply line by blowing up a bridge. During this successful attempt, his plane was the first one to be shot down. As you can imagine, when the planes hit the ground, there is a big explosion. The debris was scattered all over this hillside, as you can see in the picture. A large pit is formed and then over time, these fill with rain water, soil and leaves, and more fill it in and the plane over the years is buried.

The historians, locals from Eastern Belgium and the Verviers area are pros at discovering military remains from both sides and recovering all sorts of artifacts. After governments give up the supposedly never ending search to bring lost soldiers home, they pick up the mantle and keep up the long search. 70+ years later these men met my family for a full honors funeral and ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

In 2019, as a new college graduate, I sought these men out to be told where my great-uncle's crash had been. They, so incredibly, met with me and took me right to the sight. The Battle of the Bulge location is now largely controlled and secured lands. It is owned and patrolled by both the military and forest rangers, I believe. That makes it doubly impossible to actually get onto these grounds unless you know the right people. The land where my Great Uncle landed was turned into and is no longer a tree farm. We walked through misty fields and over barbed wire fences to reach the location. I was just as curious about all the plants and insects around me as I was with the history.

What was left of the site is this giant pictured pit. I stayed on the edge and didn't not walk into it. The rest of our tour continued into the woods where I was shown dragon's teeth (barriers that acted as anti-tank technology), old pill boxes and bunkers, the naturally filled in remains of trenches and then out to no-man's land itself--now home to one of the rarest natural orchids in the world and some wild boars and other animals that now roam the very green preserve. In a place of such death, there was so much life as a result of the endless march of time.

This photo and others in my gallery will depict and share some of these different locations with you.

Commissions Information
Evangeline40003 Commissions Journal
Writing Commissions
Editing Commissions
Proofreading Commissions
Art Commissions
Commissions FAQs

Support & Follow My Work

Twitter: @ evangeline40003
Instagram: @ writingdaydreams2reality
Instagram Art: @ evangeline40003
Facebook: Writing Daydreams to Reality
Kofi: Writingdaydreams2reality
Patreon: Writingdaydreamstoreality
Webtoons: Wednesday Writing Weeklies