In Flanders Fields

Nieuwpoort

The King Albert I Memorial in Nieuwpoort. Albert I (1875-1934) was king of the Belgians during World War I. This monument, erected in 1938 on the right bank of the Yser river, near the waterworks that saved Belgium from complete occupation in the war, is as much a commemoration of the fallen as it is of the king who led his country through these difficult years. By the time the memorial was inaugurated Albert had been dead for four years and the world was gearing up for another world war. The monument was designed by Julien de Ridder, the equestrian statue by Karel Aubroeck.

Ganzenpoot (Nieuwpoort)

Ganzenpoot (Nieuwpoort)

This 19th-century complex of drainage sluices and locks on six waterways joining in Nieuwpoort played a key role in the war, when it was decided to flood the Yser plain as the ultimate attempt to stop the German advance. The Ganzenpoot (Goose Paw) and its many war memorials are a protected monument.

Nieuwpoort

Nieuport Memorial. The memorial records 566 names of British servicemen who were killed in October 1914, in the siege of Antwerp, and in the summer of 1917, in the region of Nieuwpoort, and who have no known grave. The memorial was designed by Scottish architect William Bryce Binnie, who served with the Black Watch during the war. The lions standing at each point of the triangular platform were designed by Charles Sergeant Jagger. The Nieuport Memorial was unveiled in 1928.

Nieuwpoort

Nieuport Memorial. 'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them'. British units relieved the French in the Nieuwpoort sector in June 1917, in preparation for the scheduled amphibious landings on the German-held Belgian coast ('Operation Hush'). However, troops from the German Marine-Korps Flandern pre-emptively attacked the British on 10 July and a bloody battle ensued ('Operation Strandfest'). The Germans introduced mustard gas and used flamethrowers. The landings were aborted. Source: https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/operation-hush-including-the-battle-of-the-dunes/

The river Yser near Stuivekenskerke

The river Yser came to symbolise the Belgian effort to halt and eventually triumph over the German invader. By the end of October 1914 the seemingly unstoppable German advance came to an end here due to the inundation of the Yser plain between Nieuwpoort and Dixmude. The river became the last frontier of a tiny patch of Belgium soil that remained unoccupied for the remainder of the war.

Belgian monument in Tervate

22 October 1914 turned out to be a dramatic day in the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October 1914). By mid-October 1914 the German invaders had pushed the Belgian Army back to the southwest corner of the country, with the river Yser as the last natural line of defence. The sector between Nieuwpoort and Dixmude was held by the Belgians, supported by French units. British and French troops held the area around Ypres. But even the Yser didn't seem to be able to stop the German onslaught. With massive artillery bombardments and under the cover of darkness, German troops managed to cross the river on October 21-22 north of the destroyed bridge of Tervate, establishing a dangerous bridgehead on the west bank. Desperate Belgian counterattacks to drive the Germans back across the Yser only ended in severe losses. After the 8th Line Regiment, the 1st Grenadiers made another attempt but were cut down as well. The commanding officer Major Count Henri d'Oultremont was killed in action. The German advance would eventually be halted by the inundation of the Yser plain in the following days. This monument near the loop of Tervate commemorates the action of the Belgian Grenadiers on 22 October 1914.

Ramskapelle

Ruins of the railway station at Ramskapelle rebuilt by the Belgian army as an observation and machine gun post. It was here, on 30 October 1914, that the Germans made one of their final attempts to break through the Belgian lines on the Yser front. The Belgian troops were by then running on fumes, yet the sluices in Nieuwpoort had been opened and the polders were gradually being flooded. The strategically important Ramskapelle nonetheless fell into German hands, but was recaptured by Belgian and French units the following night. When the Germans finally realized that the polders behind them were flooding, they retreated to the river Yser. As on the rest of the Western Front mobile war had come to an end. Both sides dug in.

Frontzate

Some of the Belgian breastworks in the former railway bed are preserved. The brickwork shelters and observation posts were fortified with sandbags.

Frontzate, near the old railway station of Booitshoeke

The old railway bed from Nieuwpoort to Diksmuide is now a cycle track (renamed Frontzate). When the Belgian army inundated the Yser plain at the end of October 1914 to stop the German advance, the railway bed served as a natural watershed and effectively became the frontline for the rest of the war. The Belgians built shelters, observation and machine posts in its banks, some of which have been preserved. This was a relatively "quiet" sector of the Western Front throughout the war, but it was by no means a picnic area. Due to the particular topography any movement could be spotted from miles away. Farms in the inundated polders remained above water and served as observation or machine gun posts connected by wooden plank walkways. This view is taken from the former station at Booitshoeke looking south towards Pervijze (church tower to the right). The polders on the left of the track were the flooded no-man's land all the way to the river Yser, some 3 kms to the east where the Germans had dug in.

Oud-Stuivekenskerke (Dixmude)

The abandoned hamlet Oud-Stuivekens formed an island in the inundated Yser plain after October 1914. The church tower served as an observation post for the Belgian army. It could only be reached by wooden plank walkways. After the war, several memorials were erected on this desolate spot in the polders. Now named Our Lady's Corner (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwhoekje), it includes the base of the bell tower, a chapel, several monuments to Belgian units, a concrete command post, and one of the demarcation stones marking along the Western Front the limits of the German advance. The demarcation stones were an initiative of the French Touring Club (1921), quickly adopted by its Belgian sister organisation. The inscriptions on the markers tell in three languages 'Here the invader was brought to a standstill'. In World War II the Germans removed nearly all the inscriptions, except the ones at Ramskapelle and here at Oud-Stuivekenskerke. Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/78532

Trench of Death (Dixmude)

The only remaining part of the Belgian trench system, built in the dike on the left bank of the Yser, just north of Dixmude. What initially began as a passageway to connect the captured patches of ground on this side of the river, developed into an impregnable fortified trench. The Belgians held this position from May 1915 until the end of the war. The Germans held the ground only a handful of meters further down the river (a German pill box can be seen in the distance on the far right), as well as the opposite bank. Due to the particular topography as well as the absurdly close entrenchment of the opponents, this was one of the most dangerous spots in the relatively quiet Yser Front sector. It was aptly nicknamed 'Boyau de la mort' - the Trench of death. This memorial site was refurbished in 2014.

Keiem

Once the war had bogged down along the Western Front in the Autumn of 1914, the opponents started to build defensive lines of trenches and strongpoints. In the flat and soaked lands of West Flanders this was far from obvious. This view is taken near the German second line between Beerst and Leke in the direction of the Yser, some 2 kms away. A concrete machine gun bunker (Einheitsunterstand) built after 1916 can be seen on the left. At the back of the bunker is a staircase to access the roof for a machine gun position. Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/78392

Ramskapelle

Belgian Military Cemetery. Built between 1922 and 1925, this cemetery contains 635 burials, mainly regrouped from wartime field graves recovered from the Yser sector. Two thirds remain unidentified.

Houthulst

Belgian military cemetery. Located on the edge of Houthulst Forest, where so many soldiers were killed in 1918, this cemetery is the final resting place for 1.722 officers and men of the Belgian army. 493 remain unidentified. Among the identified 1.198 were killed during the final offensive in September-October 1918.

Houthulst

Belgian military cemetery. 81 Italians are buried at Houthulst as well. They were POWs who did forced labour for the German army. Houthulst forest (or Vrijbos) was occupied by the Germans in 1914 and would only be recaptured by Belgian troops on 28 September 1918. Well behind the front, the forest was turned into a camouflaged depot with munition dumps, railway tracks and defensive positions, and remained relatively safe until 1917. The forest was totally destroyed in the final years of the war and was partly replanted.