Starting out from London, there are direct trains that ramble leisurely to Dover
Priory, a fifteen-minute ride from the Eastern Docks and the ferries. There is also HS1 from St. Pancras. Back in the day, there
used to be a station on the dock but the Tunnel saw off the boat-train. This is
an expensive rail route offering very little in the way of cheap advance
tickets. If there are three of you travelling off-peak, you can get a Group
Saver 3 for 2. Alternatively, you can cycle. There is a lot of London to get through and using an oyster
card to get a train to somewhere near the edge of the 'burbs such as Dartford is an idea.
DFDS run frequent two-hour crossings to Dunkerque’s ferry
terminal at Loon Plage. This is 10 miles west of Dunkerque. Once beyond the
main roads at the strangely English-sounding Craywick, there is a very pleasant
cycle to the Belgian border through Coppernaxfort, Brouckerqe, Pitgam,
Zegerscappel, Esquelbecq and Wormhout (good name for a firm of French solicitors) on the D17.
The route crosses canals and zig-zags through fields bursting with crops and punctuated by tidy red-brick farms.
The route crosses canals and zig-zags through fields bursting with crops and punctuated by tidy red-brick farms.
Once across the border, Poperinge is not too far away and
good for a coffee. Once through there and onto the N308 to Ypres, you may see
the first of many of the ubiquitous white and racing-green signs of the British
Wargraves Commission that indicate military cemeteries. Brandhoek is the first
of these and creeps up unceremoniously on your right. The N308 runs parallel to
the busy N38 and the railway and to the south-east you can spot the tree-topped
ridge that formed the southern border the infamous Ypres Salient of WW1. Its
high point, Mount Kemmel, was fought over for its strategic location and so the
frontline moved back and forth, either side of the ridge.
Ypres is effectively a new town. The original Ypres was
flattened by four years of artillery bombardment in WW1. It was rebuilt as an exact replica over several decades using
German reparation funds and The Cloth Hall is the centre-piece of Ypres.
Much
of the centre of the town is cobbled – Belgians like cobbles; bicycles don’t.
The Cloth Hall is home to the In Flanders Fields museum, which is worth a
morning.
The other notable sight in Ypres is the Menin Gate, a memorial to
54,896 soldiers whose bodies were never found.
It is also the scene, each night at 8pm, of The Last Post performed by a bugler. This event has been held at the spot since the mid 1920s but for a short spell when it relocated to the UK for the war that followed soon after the war to end all wars.
It is also the scene, each night at 8pm, of The Last Post performed by a bugler. This event has been held at the spot since the mid 1920s but for a short spell when it relocated to the UK for the war that followed soon after the war to end all wars.
There are a few cemeteries by the town’s walls but more lie beside the Menin Rd, the scene of heavy fighting in several
actions of WW1.
Ypres is perfectly placed, if that is the right word, for
visiting Tyne Cot, near Passendale, the name given to the Third Battle of Ypres
of 1917. The cemetery contains the remains of 12,000 soldiers and is the largest of its kind in the world. The museum is small but full of poignant artifacts found in the battles of the salient. The names of each soldier buried here are repeated eerily in a looped recording.
One aspect of BWGC cemeteries is that the dead and missing are listed in order of rank. Tradition or no tradition, I find this a wee bit sickening.
On the way back to Ypres, there is the Welsh Memorial Park on Langemarkseweg, to the west of Langemark.
Returning in to Ypres along the canal get onto Bargiestraat on the east bank to find the Yorkshire Trench and Dugout in amongst the warehouses of the industrial estate. These were recovered between 1992 and 2008 along with the remains of over 200 men.
To the south of Ypres is the Messines Ridge. This crescent of hills was mined over six months by the Allies. Nineteen of the twenty-one ammonal mines detonated simultaneously
at 3.10am on 7th June 1917, killing approximately 10,000 German
troops. The nineteen mines left numerous craters.
One of the easiest to visit
is the Spanbroekmolen or the Peace Pool, a tranquil, water-lily covered lake
that is a swimming spot for locals. Between this grisly spot and the Menin Road
is the bizarre Sanctuary Wood museum at Hill 62, on Canadalaan off the Menin Road/N8. Its eerie photograph
collections viewed through stereoscopic contraptions, its piles of shell cases, macabre mannequins, and the
trenches out in the back make for a peculiar experience. Carry on further up Canadlaan and you'll reach the memorial to the Canadians who defended the southern edge of the Salient.
Nearby to the south east of 62, is Hill 60, just off Werviksestraat at Zwarteleenstraat. This contains Caterpillar Crater and the remains of German bunkers that provide a lasting testament to the strength of reinforced concrete. There are also various memorials to those involved in the fierce Battle of Hill 60. It is also the name of a bijou restaurant located nearby.
If you have time for your return, head north towards Veurne - a canal in the north of Ypres takes you some of the way. Take a westerly route when you reach Alveringem, zig-zag to the D3 and make for the walled town of Berges.
Or, veer south west from Ypres to the hilltop town of Cassel before a straightish run on the D52 to rejoin the D17 near Esquelbecq.
