Ypres (Ieper) – The Lille Gate & Ramparts Cemetery (Lille Gate)

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Magicfingers

The Lille Gate, southern entrance to the city of Ypres.  Note the CWGC signpost to right of the picture pointing the way to Ramparts Cemetery (Lille Gate), and the IWGC (all will be explained) signs beneath the Gate itself (see below).

Lille Gate

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Ypres (Ieper) – St. George’s Memorial Church

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Magicfingers

Just round the corner from the Cloth Hall is St. George’s Memorial Church. Opened in 1929 as a memorial to the British soldiers who fought and died in the Salient, since 1945 St. George’s has also served as a memorial church to the troops who, in a later conflict, passed through Ypres during the retreat to Dunkirk.

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The Menin Gate: A First Impression

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Magicfingers

The Menin Gate, unveiled on Sunday July 24th 1927 by Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, dedicated to the memory of more than 54,000 men of the Commonwealth who died in the Salient and have no known grave.  A memorial built in stone and brick, “these stones which we have builded in their honour, and on which we have engraven their names”, tangible evidence that these men will never be forgotten.

“He is not missing.  He is here”.

 -Lord Plumer’s address at the unveiling

Now my advice is to forget about the rest of this post, one of the earliest published on this website, and turn your attention to the full blown Tour of the Menin Gate that you will find if you click the link.  There is nothing to be seen in this post that is not covered far better there.

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Ypres (Ieper) – The Cloth Hall

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Magicfingers

I’m sure you will all have seen photographs of the ruins of the Cloth Hall and St. Martin’s Cathedral in Ypres during the First World War.  It took nearly forty years, from 1928 to 1967, to rebuild the Cloth Hall, and you have to say it was well worth the effort.  Every time I find myself here though, I can’t help but think of the sixteen men of the 6th Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, billeted in the Cathedral’s vaults and killed there when, on 12th August 1915, shells from a German long-distance gun collapsed the vault around them.  Their bodies could not be recovered and they lay entombed where they fell until after the Armistice.  They are now buried in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, and you can visit them by clicking the link.

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Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Magicfingers

Sunset at Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery.

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After Ploegsteert Wood

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Magicfingers

This post, uploaded back in January 2011, has turned out to be a complete fabrication (apart from the Zillebeke bit, which did happen…check out the Zillebeke section on the Home Page for proof).  The Tour of Ploegsteert Wood was finally completed about a year later, early in 2012.

So, the Tour of Ploegsteert Wood is completed.  Phew.  Balders suggests we head for the Messines ridge next, but there are technical issues involved there at the moment (which means I haven’t compiled all the details of the men buried in some of the cemeteries there and that, my friends, takes time), so I think we should instead go to the Zillebeke area, a mile and a half south east of Ypres, and the scene of heavy fighting throughout much of the War. 

Of course, it’s entirely possible that I may change my mind.  Who knows?

Be that as it may, that is all for the moment.  Balders and I shall return, so watch this space.

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A Tour of Ploegsteert Wood Update

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Magicfingers

Update February 2012:  Once upon a time there was a trench map here with part of our route round Ploegsteert Wood marked on it.

Now there isn’t.

But if you click on the Trench Maps & Tour Maps links on the home page, you will find everything you need there.

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