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.
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.
