# Ypres



## Marcel (Nov 3, 2018)

A few weeks ago I spent a day at Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium. Very famous for at least 3 battles, among which Passendale is probably the most famous. I promised to post some photos. I will do that in a couple of posts.

As you can see, WW1 is still very much visible in this area.


The no-mans land at the bluff. The road on the left runs where the British trenches used to run, on the right were the German lines. I believe this is still a shell hole left over from that time.






The rest of my photos in this post is at Hill 60 and Caterpillar. These were two artificial hills, created at the construction of the railway line that runs between them. The earth that was moved form these to heights. The Germans captured these higher grounds early in the war.It's about 60 meters heigh and from the hill they had a great view on the movement of Allied troops in the Ypres salieant. Naturally many times the allied tried to conquer them, only to be thrown off again some time later. This area pretty much is left as it was.

The ground at hill 60 is never flat. It has bumbs and ditches, created by 4 years of constant shelling.





The monument for the Queen Victory Rifles.





Remains of a German bunker on the hill.





Other bunker remains and if you look carefully, you can see the outlines of a German trench on the right of the photo, just below the tree.







Another recognizable German trench on the hill.





As an illustration how close they were, you can see the metal strip saying "French line 1914 and British line in 1915", the other wooden plateau about 5 meters away says "German line 1914, 1915". They were that close for years. No-mans land was only 5 meters wide.





Last but not least: The fighting in the Ypres saillant was very much an underground warfare. Her the impressive evidence of that, being the Caterpillar crater, on the other side of the railwayline. British engineers dug tunnels in the soft ground, stuffed them full with explosives and lighted the fuse on 7 Junel 1917. THe enormous explosion created this impressive crater. It is said that the explosion was heard in London. I fell silent when seeing this. It's amazing what force this has unleashed and I could only feel sorry for the poor Germans that died or were wounded in this unexpected violent event. The whole area around Ypres contains more craters like these, as both sides used these tactics, but none are as impressive as this one. The crater is 80 meter in diameter and 15 meters deep. The tunnel was almost 500 meters in length.

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## Wurger (Nov 3, 2018)




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## mikewint (Nov 3, 2018)

Amazing Marcel, Thank You for posting


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## Airframes (Nov 4, 2018)

Good stuff Marcel.


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## rochie (Nov 4, 2018)

thanks Marcel.

would like to visit some WW1 battlefields someday

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## Gnomey (Nov 4, 2018)

Lovely shots Marcel!


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## parsifal (Nov 4, 2018)

Great work marcel

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## Marcel (Nov 4, 2018)

Another place I visited was the 'Hooge'. This was the site of a little castle and the scene of fighting for the most part of the great War. It was well known at the time.
If you ever visit there, the little museum located in a small church is well worth the visit.

Remains of the war are still found regularly. I could buy inacitve rounds for a euro per piece. Didn't buy any as it is not my thing. Here you see a big stack of shells still there.





In the museum I mentioned, the had a couple of well maintained ones:





The 'Hooge crater', also an example of the underground warfare. This one is even bigger than the previous Caterpillar crater, but it actually consists of multiple craters. Here up front you see a pillbox build by the British, then conquered by the German. The entrance is obviously on the worng side for the Germans, in the line of fire from the British on the left, so they made a little wall to be able to get in- and out. The gun on top is also found here.





Inside the pillbox that you see above. Still looks good after all the fighting and the century that passed.





Better view of the 'Hooge krater'. It's now a peacefull pond. On the left were the Tommies, on the right the Germans.





Dug position with debris.





A restored trench, part of the British line.





Also here, I was amazed by the proximity of the lines. I thought no-man's land was always several hundreds of meters across, but also here this was not the case. At some places it was a mere 10 meters from the British to the German trench. Can't imagine what it was like to be that close to the enemy all the time.

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## Wurger (Nov 4, 2018)




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## Marcel (Nov 4, 2018)

Some more photo's. One is from the Yorkshire trench and dugout. The dugout are deep underground quarters which was the headquarters for the 13th en het 16th Batalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers (38ste (Welsh) Division) during the battle of Pilckem Ridge which was the start of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, also called the Battle for Passchendaele (Pasendale). It was left during the battle and forgotten. In 1992 it was rediscovered and remains the best preserved example of such a dugout. You cannot enter as it is full of water.

On top of the dugout, the outlines of the tunnels and rooms are illustrated. At this spot 156 missing bodies were found and given back to their family:





The restored trench and one of the entrances to the dugout. The water starts at the forth stairs form the top, so there is no way that you can enter.





The next 2 photos are The Menen Poort (Gate) in Ypres. On the walls of this gate are all the names of missing soldiers of the Ypres Saillant during the Great War.

Here every night since 1927 ( with the exeption of WW2), the Last Post is blow as a remembrance to all the lives lost in the Ypres sailant. You can see the trumpet players on the 2nd photo

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## Marcel (Nov 4, 2018)

And last, some pictures of the city of Ypres itself. The whole city was destroyed during the war, but was rebuild in the years after. It felt a bit like Dresden that was also restored. It feels somehow a bit fake, as buildings look like they are old, but you can see they are not really that old. But still, a nice town to visit.

First the cemetery at Hooge. Around Ypres, there are hundreds like this. On one of these, you can see an old veteran saluting the fallen.









The Rijssel poort, the only original gate of Ieper, well restored.





A piper in the Mene poort making tribute to the fallen:





Some statues on walls of the buildings still show the damage of the war:









The Laken Hal on the great market. This concludes my photo series of Ypres.

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## Wurger (Nov 4, 2018)




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## buffnut453 (Nov 4, 2018)

Thanks for sharing these pics. Hope to get to Ypres next summer. A cousin of mine was awarded the MM during 3rd Ypres/Passchendale and I'm keen to walk the ground.


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## jetcal1 (Nov 7, 2018)

Thank you


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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2018)

Awesome Marcel. Your photos are most welcome. I'm heading that way in June next year. I'm hoping to go to the Somme, Wipers (Ypres) and Arras, as well as Le Quesnoy, which New Zealanders liberated.


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## Airframes (Dec 6, 2018)

Good stuff Marcel - just caught up with this thread.
The pub to the right of the Laken Hall is the one that my group of friends use when they go each year.


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## Marcel (Dec 6, 2018)

nuuumannn said:


> Awesome Marcel. Your photos are most welcome. I'm heading that way in June next year. I'm hoping to go to the Somme, Wipers (Ypres) and Arras, as well as Le Quesnoy, which New Zealanders liberated.


Hi Grant,

If you want to meet, Ypres (Ieper) is only a 2 hours drive from me, so I might go and meet you there if you like to.


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## Peter Gunn (Dec 6, 2018)

Excellent photos Marcel, well done and thank you for sharing them. It's hard to express in words the suffering and death that occurred there, but your photos capture the waste and destruction of war even 100 years after the fact.

Wish you had been our wedding photographer, you're good. Of course our wedding was over 30 years ago so there's that.


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## michael rauls (Dec 6, 2018)

Thanks for posting those Marcel. I'm struck by how beautiful the area is. Such a contrast to the bloodshed that happened there.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 6, 2018)

Great pics.

I really hope to move back to Europe some day, so that I can see all the battlefields I have not made it to yet.


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## Marcel (Dec 6, 2018)

DerAdlerIstGelandet
Just make the next holiday long enough, so you can visit me. It's not far from my home


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 6, 2018)

Marcel said:


> DerAdlerIstGelandet
> Just make the next holiday long enough, so you can visit me. It's not far from my home



Hard to do. This is the USA my friend. A country that has been conditioned to believe that working to live (rather than living to work), and having a decent work-life balance with decent vacation time is evil.

What lil vacation time I get, I use for family.


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## Marcel (Dec 6, 2018)

Of course and so you should


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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2018)

> you want to meet, Ypres (Ieper) is only a 2 hours drive from me, so I might go and meet you there if you like to.



Yes, definitely Marcel. I've got only one night there and we'll be watching the Last Post, but I'm sure I could find time for a beer with you. It'll be good to catch up again. The date I'm likely to be there is between the 20th and 22nd of June. Not sure which day exactly I'll be in Wipers.


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## parsifal (Dec 6, 2018)

There is something unmentionably sad about most WWI battlefields. Its the terrible losses that one cant help feeling were all in vain, given what happened after the fighting stopped.

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## Thorlifter (Dec 6, 2018)

I enjoyed Ypres while I was in Belgium but didn't get to spend much time there. Some day I'll get back again. Thanks for the pics Marcel.


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## jetcal1 (Dec 8, 2018)

parsifal said:


> There is something unmentionably sad about most WWI battlefields. Its the terrible losses that one cant help feeling were all in vain, given what happened after the fighting stopped.


WWI has certainly been the gift that keeps on giving.

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## Marcel (Dec 12, 2018)

Peter Gunn said:


> Wish you had been our wedding photographer, you're good. Of course our wedding was over 30 years ago so there's that.


Only just noted this remark. Thanks for the compliment, very much appriciated.

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## Gnomey (Dec 17, 2018)

Great shots Marcel!


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## yulzari (Dec 22, 2018)

Thank you for these. My grandfather fought there with the BEF in 1914/15 and my father in 1940.


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## nuuumannn (Jul 4, 2019)

The thing I found about having visited these exact places was how difficult it was to put them into context. Of course, we are told that these ditches in the ground are German trenches, the problem is there appears nothing to place them as the images from the Great War offer no connection at all owing to the mud and lack of identifiable landmarks. I spent a day driving round the Somme area tracing the movement of New Zealand troops and it was only when we reached Le Quesnoy that there was something tangible and identifiable from images and paintings. The same with the Ypres region. Messines was captured by the New Zealanders, but it was just rubble, the entire town. Now it's modern and new, in fact, almost all the lovely old towns in that region of Belgium are less than 100 years old because they were simply wiped from the map and only their names remained.


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