Emma is delighted to announce that she has been made an ambassador for the Tanks Memorial Ypres Salient and awarded life membership to the Friends of the Tanks Memorial.

The memorial, located in Poelkappelle, Belgium, commemorates the members of the Tanks Regiments who fought during the First World War in the Battle of Ypres. The construction of the memorial is based on the interior of a tank, with coloured paving stones showing where people sat and the confined space in a First World War tank.

Emma will receive her certificate when she visits Ypres this September to sing with the Army Wives Choir.

The Dutch celebrate their liberation after the Second World War on 5th May. This year, Emma will sing in a short concert in Rijnsburg, together with the Band of Liberation and the Floraband. The programme includes songs and marches associated with liberation and the event is organised by the Oranje Vereniging, Rijnsburg.

5th May, 19:30, Immanuëlkerk, Kerkstraat 3, Rijnburg

Tickets are available here.

The Netherlands was liberated from the German occupation in the Second World War on 5th May, 1945, and the 4th May, the last day of occupation, is the Dutch Remembrance Day. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 20:00.

This year, Emma will be singing during a ceremony in the CWGC cemetery in Heteren , organised by the Heteren Orange Comité. A group of British veterans who partcipated in the liberation of the Netherlands will be present.

Nineteen airmen are buried in the cemetery, two of whom are unidentified.

19:30, CWGC Heteren, Achterstraat, Heteren, the Netherlands

The Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, took place between 7^th and 29^th April, 1918. It was part of a German offensive known as the “Spring Offensive” whose goal was to recapture Ypres from British Forces. There were over 200,000 casualties and losses. On 29^th April, the German High Command called off the offensive.

The First World War was the first war to involve tank warfare. The Tanks’ Regiment was formed by the British Army in 1916. Tanks were first used in 1916 in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in the Somme. During the Spring Offensive, the Germans used tanks in large-scale warfare for the first time. As the First World War progressed, tank warfare became increasingly common. It was perilous. Tanks often became stuck in mud, leaving soldiers vulnerable to shells and gunfire. However, only about a quarter of the casualties in the Tank Regiments occurred in tanks: many fell after dismounting to fire machine guns. The Tanks’ Regiment earned great respect from the Infantry Commanders to whose battalions they were attached.

The Tanks Memorial Ypres Salient is a monument in Poelkapelle, Belgium. On 15^th April, a ceremony will held at the monument at 16:30 followed by a service in St. George’s Memorial Church in Ypres. Emma will sing at both ceremonies.

Sunday, 15^th April, 2018

16:30 – Tanks Memorial Ypres Salient, Poelkapelle: blessing and placement of wreaths.

18:00 – Remembrance Service in St George´s Memorial Church in Ypres commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Lys.

During the First World War, the allied forces sometimes sheltered in tunnels as well as trenches. In the French town of Arras, the New Zealand Tunneling Companies dug a large network of tunnels which connected to the town’s existing Roman and Medieval tunnels. These formed a base for over twenty thousand Allied soldiers, including a hospital with seven hundred beds and several operating theatres. There was running water and electricity. The New Zealanders named the tunnels ‘Wellington’ after their capital.

On 9^th April, 1917, at 05:30 am UK time, the Battle of Arras began. Soldiers ran out of the tunnels into No Man’s Land. In the thirty-seven days that followed, nearly 300,000 soldiers and officers were killed or wounded.

On 9^th April, 2018, at 06:30 am local time, there will be a remembrance ceremony at the Wellington Tunnels to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Arras. Emma will sing Abide with Me, Danny Boy, and Amazing Grace. Music will also be provided by the Orchestre d’Harmonie d’Arras, piper Anja Pepplinkhuizen, and ‘cellist Fabrice Bihan in what promises to be a moving and fitting ceremony. Britain and the Commonwealth will be represented by attachés and military personnel, and the Mayor of Arras will also attend and lay a wreath.

9^th April, 2018, 06:30 am, Wellington Tunnels, Arras, France.