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Ypres Salient Tour Descriptor
Notes
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7. Hill 60:
Is an evocative site to visit since
you are able to view a battlefield scene that since the end of
the war, has not been built upon, where original shell craters
and Pill-Boxes still dominate the site, where you can see the
closeness of the German and British lines and view one of the
most impressive mine crater in Flanders. Fighting took place
here every year of the war, mining and counter-mining was a
regular feature of warfare along with trench raids and the use
of gas. It was here that gas was used for the first time against
British troops. A short walk brings you to Caterpillar Crater,
the result of one of the 19 mines detonated on the first day of
the battle of Messines, June 7th 1917.
8. German Trenches, Bayenwald:
Here, in what amounts to just 10% of
the original trench system you will find some 300 metres of
German trenches, faithfully reconstructed with willow supports
between the “A” frames and 4 German bunkers plus a rare
mineshaft which goes to a depth of 17 metres. To reconstruct
German trenches without using, in any way, concrete, makes this
trench system unique on the Western front. Adolf Hitler saw
action here.
9. Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater:
Now often called the “Pool of Peace”
the crater is another example of the successful mining
operations that took place here on the 7th June 1917. It is said
that this one detonated 15secs late and some of the debris came
down on the soldiers of the 36th Ulster Division who were
already advancing towards Wytschaete. The crater is now owned by
Talbot House in Poperinghe. On the crater rim is a German
concrete bunker in which 4 Germans were found dead but unmarked.
10. Irish Peace Park:
The battle of Messines was the first
time the 36th Ulster northern Irish Division and the 16th
southern Irish Division fought side by side in the taking of
Wytschaete. With the strong association that the Ridge has
always had with Ireland a Peace Park was built to remember and
symbolise all Irishmen who fought and who died in the war. The
110 feet high tower is in the traditional design of an Irish
Round Tower is partially built with stone from a former British
Army barracks in Tipperary, the remainder of the stone from a
work-house outside Mullingar, County Westmeath.
The design has a unique aspect that
allows the sun to only illuminate the interior on the 11th hour
of the 11th day of the 11th month, the anniversary of the
armistice that ended the war and the time for the minute's
silence on Remembrance Day.
The tower was unveiled after an 11am
service on 11 November 1998 by President Mary McAleese of
Ireland, HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the
other Commonwealth Realms and King Albert II of Belgium.
In her speech, President McAleese said:
"Today’s ceremony at the Peace
Park was not just another journey down a well-travelled path.
For much of the past eighty years, the very idea of such a
ceremony would probably have been unthinkable. Those whom we
commemorate here were doubly tragic. They fell victim to a war
against oppression in Europe. Their memory too fell victim to a
war for independence at home in Ireland."
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