<P> Alexis Helmer , a close friend , was killed during the battle on May 2 . McCrae performed the burial service himself , at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres . The next day , he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance at an Advanced Dressing Station outside Ypres . This location is today known as the John McCrae Memorial Site . </P>
where was the poem in flanders fields written
in the back of an ambulance at an Advanced Dressing Station outside Ypres