Ypres

On the 3rd of September I visited the World War 1 battlefields surrounding the small Belgian town of Ypres. This town was never captured by the Germans, however the front line was only a few miles away for the duration and so by the end of the war the town was completely destroyed by German artillery. This area is of particular importance to NZ as we played a major part in the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. This battle had the aim of straightening the British lines and hopefully providing a breakthrough towards the town of Passchendale and the German held Dutch sea ports. Passchendale was eventually captured after many months of fighting and many lives lost but there was no break through. This battle became synonymous with the wasteful and futile nature of trench warfare.

There are many cemeteries and memorials in this area however due to limited time I only concentrated on the NZ memorials.

Ypres Town

Cloth Hall. Rebuilt after the war.

Cloth Hall at the end of the war

The view of Menin Gate from the bell tower on Cloth Hall.

Menin Gate

The Menin Gate was the original gate out of Ypres on the road leading to Menin. As it heads in the direction of the battlefield most of the soldiers that went there to fight went through this gate and of course many did not come back. The site has now been turned into a Memorial to the Missing where soldiers that have no known graves are recorded.



Last Post Service at Menin Gate

Every evening at 8pm the Belgium Last Post Association conduct a small ceremony at Menin Gate and play the last post. This has been done continuously since 1929 shortly after the Menin Gate Memorial was completed except for the years during World War Two when Germany occupied Belgium. For these years the ceremony was continued in England until Belgium was liberated.

There is always a crowd of people which attend and the night I went was no exception. After a small reading by an English school student and a wreath laying, the last post was played followed by one minutes silence. Very moving.



Tyne Cot Cemetery

Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest British Cemetery in the world containing many thousand graves and a Memorial to the Missing for the soldiers that have no known graves. The Memorial to the Missing has over 33,000 names of Commonwealth Soldiers including 1176 NZers.

The area of the cemetery was captured by NZ and Australian troops on 4th October 1917.

I arrived just before dawn and it was a bit foggy!

Walls surrounding the cemetery that contains the names of the soldiers with no lnown graves.

German pillbox. There are three German pilboxes within the cemetery.

Plaque on the NZ Memorial.

 

NZ Memorial Gravenstafel

During the 3rd Battle of Ypres the NZ forces attacked the high point at Gravenstafel on 4th October 1917. This was a major high point over looking the surrounding area and gave view to the the town of Passchedaele a few miles further down the road. The attack was a success and to commeorate this achievement a Memorial was erected. Unfortunately, the British high command took this victory as a sign of weaken German morale and ordered NZ to attack again towards Passchedaele on the 12th October 1917. But the preparations were not sufficient due to the lack of time, the weather and generally appalling condition of the battlefield, now nothing more that mud, water and shell holes for miles. The ensuing battle resulted in the worst day in NZs military history. Over 2700 casualties in one day.

Polygon Wood Cemetery and NZ Memorial

Polygon Wood was the scene of many battles during the war and it kept its name despite all the trees being destroyed by shellfire within the first year of the war.

This cemetery has the Australian 5th Battalion Memorial and a NZ Memorial.

In the woods around the cemetery there are still overgrown trenches.

 

 

 The NZ Memorial is the structure behind the gravestones.

The Australian Memorial as seen from the NZ Memorial.

 

Passchedaele Museum at Zonnebeke

Very interesting private museum about the many battles around Ypres.