BRANCH BATTLEFIELD TOUR SEPTEMBER 2010

by Rod Arnold
 
The Yser Front and the Northern Salient
 
An early Friday morning departure from Pimperne with the mist promising a fine day later, at least on this side of the Channel! Our progress through south-eastern England was only broken by breakfast and coffee stops before we boarded the train that was to take us through the tunnel to France.

Branch Tour Group 2010

From Calais we sped north on the motorway towards Brussels and turned off for Lille before making our way on local roads to visit Dozinghem Military Cemetery just north of Poperinge. Until 1917 this was outside the front held by British and Commonwealth forces in Belgium. However, in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres, groups of casualty clearing stations were set up in the area. Three were located at Dozinghem - a name coined by British troops to sound like local Flemish ones. They opened the military cemetery and used it through to early 1918. The cemetery also contains 73 burials from the Second World War associated with the withdrawal to Dunkirk in 1940.
 
Our route then took us through Poperinge and on to Ieper, our base for this tour. After a quick "wash and brush-up" at our hotel, we were on our way again, heading south across the Messines Ridge to Ploegsteert. Here we participated in the monthly Last Post Ceremony held at the Ploegsteert Memorial, a poppy wreath being laid on behalf of the Branch. The ceremony was very well attended. The Memorial commemorates British soldiers but in this francophone area of Belgium the atmosphere seemed more "international" than the predominantly British "feel" of ceremonies at the Menin Gate back in Ieper.
 
Saturday also started misty but bright. Our first call was at White House Cemetery just outside Ieper to enable one member of our party to pay his respects to two casualties of the April 1918 fighting in the area. We moved on to the Yorkshire Trench and Dugout near the Ieper-Ijzer Canal. This was originally a second-line trench, but in July 1917 the dugout served as a command post for 13th and 16th Battalions, Royal Welsh Fusiliers (38th [Welsh] Division) for the attack on Pilkem Ridge. The site was discovered in 1992 and has since been explored by the Diggers Belgian archaeological group. The name Yorkshire Trench reflects the presence in the area of the 49th (West Yorkshire) Division in 1915. Here the curator of The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester, produced a German officer's leather pistol holster found in the area by a Tommy and "souvenired". This had recently been acquired by the Museum. The pistol was back in Dorchester.

Varlet Farm Ammo Dump

Crossing the 1917 battlefield through Pilkem and on towards Langemark, we arrived on the banks of the Steenbeek at the point where 7th Bn. Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry began their advance on 16th August 1917 to capture Langemark. The battalion was the late Harry Patch's unit and he paid for the stone which now stands on the spot "to the memory of fallen comrades and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing of the Great War generation."
 
We passed through Langemark and Poelkapelle to reach our next objective, Varlet Farm. We had received special permission from the owners to visit the property which now combines a working farm with a bed and breakfast business. Here we heard about the assault on the farm by the Royal Naval Division in October 1917, supporting the Canadian drive for Passendale. We viewed the remains of the buildings existing in 1917 and the "iron harvest" collected for the Belgian Army disposal team. Away from the shells awaiting disposal, our travelling experts identified a rifle grenade and a shell case still holding cordite by the track through the farm.
 
An excellent buffet lunch was provided at the present farm and Charlotte Cardoen-Descamps, the wife of the farmer told us about living on and farming a battlefield. Afterwards we were able to visit the on-site museum of finds made on the farm. Charlotte left us in no doubt of her extensive knowledge of Great War munitions!
 
Parking near the memorial to the French air ace Capitaine Georges Guynemer in Poelkapelle, we visited the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient inaugurated in 2009. The memorial commemorates the tank crewmen of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps and the Tank Corps who fell in the Salient during the Great War. The memorial is located where the remains of the tank Damon II (D29), knocked out at Poelkapelle crossroads on 9th October 1917, stood until it was removed by the Germans in 1941.
 
We were treated to more local expertise when we met local technical college teacher Johan Vanbeselaere. He has made a special study of the 1917 tank actions in the Poelkapelle area and added his knowledge to the input from our own guides. Johan had two surprises for us. First he took us to the village hall to see a full scale replica of a French Morane-Saulnier monoplane that he had built with the assistance of his students. The machine has a genuine rotary engine. Johan claimed that the replica could fly but added that he wouldn't take it up!

Morane Saulnier Replica

Johan led us back through Poelkapelle to a workshop where he revealed his latest project in progress - a replica of Damon II! When completed he hopes to have the machine sited at Poelkapelle crossroads.
 
Back aboard our coach, we headed off down the Poelkapelle - St. Juliaan road with a brief halt at Vancouver Corner to visit the Brooding Soldier Canadian Memorial. En-route Johan pointed out sites associated with the tank actions including the Tank Gate and the Tank Cemetery. Our next stop was at the site of Gallipoli Farm where we heard about the crew of tank F41 (Fray Bentos) who, cut off in no-man's-land, defended their disabled machine against German attacks for sixty-two hours in August 1917.
 
The tank theme continued as we proceeded past Polygon Wood to Reutel tracing the route of tanks A56, A58, A59 and A60 in their advance on 4th October 1917. Their section commander, Captain Clement Robertson, led them into action on foot and paid the inevitable price. Robertson became the first Tank Corps VC.
 
We drove on to visit Robertson's grave at Oxford Road Cemetery, Johan's local knowledge enabling us to avoid a major traffic hold-up in Zonnebeke.
 
After an extremely interesting day we were back at our hotel in Ieper in good time to attend the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate. A fife and drum band from Scotland paraded and a lone bagpiper added a lament to the usual bugle call.
 
Sunday was bright and sunny. We left through the Menin Gate, once more passing through St. Juliaan and Poelkapelle heading for Houthulst Forest and the Belgian Military Cemetery. The 1931 burials here include 81 Italian POWs used as labourers by the Germans. An Albertina Marker just to the side of the cemetery commemorates the Belgian "Final Offensive" of September 1918.
 
Our next planned stop was the German Cemetery at Vladso. Unfortunately road closures blocked our route to the site. Although we did try to find a way around the roadworks, a prearranged visit at Pervijze meant we had to abandon the visit and press on.
 
Keeping north of Diksmuide, we now crossed from the east the area deliberately flooded by the Belgians in 1914 to block the German advance to arrive in Pervijze. Here, the former railway station on the old Diksmuide - Nieuwpoort line still shows the original "Pervyse". The building is now a house. In 1914 the railway embankment marked the Belgian front line. The route of old railway is now a cycle track and a nearby information panel marked sites along the route associated with fighting in the area.
 
One of the highlights of the entire tour was a specially arranged visit to a private house in Pervijze. Here we were shown the cellar used by Elsie Knocker and Mairie Chisholm - "The Angels of Pervyse" - as their first aid post from November 1914. A recent talk at our Branch had told us something about their experiences on the frontline, but our admiration for them increased as we were taken down the narrow staircase in groups of ten to see the cramped conditions under which they had worked. We were told they had ten casualties at a time down there - how did they get a stretcher down? We were very grateful to the Belgian family (and their bemused children) who allowed thirty-plus strangers access to their home on a Sunday morning. Apparently they were unaware of the history of the cellar when they moved in to the property.

Pervijze Old Station

There was more for us to see in Pervijze. We were taken to a small museum in the local village hall. This displayed items of local military history from the Great War onwards. Most touching was a note in the visitor's book from a Canadian woman whose father, a RCAF Spitfire pilot, was shot down and killed in 1943. His remains were discovered and buried in Pervijze in 1946. Some of us made our way to the churchyard and paid our respects at the grave.
 
Our final call in Pervijze was at the remains of an old church tower used as a Belgian observation post during the Great War. During the Second World War the Germans added an upper brick-built section.
 
We moved on to the Belgian Army Memorial Chapel at Oud-Stuivenskerke with its stained glass. Nearby were the ruins of the original chapel, used as a fortified observation post in 1914-18, memorials to several Belgian regiments involved in the fighting on the Yser Front and a 1918 Demarcation Stone.
 
After a packed morning Diksmuide and lunch were calling but we stopped off on our way to visit the "Dodengang" (Trench of Death) 400 metres of preserved trenches on the banks of the Ijzer. This was the Belgian forward defence position throughout the Yser battles. Here the defenders were under German fire from three sides. We almost succeeded in leaving one of our number in the labyrinth of concrete "sandbags" and shelters.
 
A warm sunny Sunday and lunchtime down by the river. A recipe for parking spaces being at a premium - and so it proved in Diksmuide. Happily our capable coach driver managed to manoeuvre our vehicle into a slot with a 180-degree turn on the riverbank road.
 
Our aperitif comprised brief talks by two of our members. Ian Duffin spoke about the historical background to the Flemish / French speaking problems in Belgium and Graham Kerridge described the action of 12th Lancers at the river bridge in Diksmuide in May 1940.
 
Lunch was by "own arrangements", some picnicking by the side of the river whilst others headed off to find refreshment at local cafes and restaurants. With a "free" 90 minutes in Diksmuide some of the group visited the 84 metres high Ijzer Tower for a superb view of the area. The top floor has a painted panorama of the area of the Yser Front now visible from the tower showing the 1914-18 trench lines, ruins and the flooded zone. The tower also hosts a museum with a wide range of displays covering the Flemish Movement and the Great War in Belgium. At the time of our visit there was an excellent exhibit on tunnelling during the war.
 
We now headed back towards Ieper, pausing at the Steenstraat Memorial to the gas attack of April 1915. The original memorial was blown-up by the Germans during the Second World War because it referred to them as "barbarians". The present memorial, the 15 metres high aluminium Cross of Reconciliation, was raised in 1961.
 
At the suggestion of one group member, the party dined together in Ieper on Sunday evening to commemorate the late Will Townend, a very active member of the Branch and our resident expert on artillery matters. It is difficult to envisage one of our battlefield tours without Will being there to point out the battery positions and explain the barrage plans.
 
Our journey back to the UK began with another bright and sunny day. Once more we crossed the Pilkem battlefield, this time to see the German Cemetery at Langemark. This had been added to our itinerary to compensate for the abandoned visit to the Vladso Cemetery the previous day. Over 44,300 German war dead are buried at Langemark, more than 25,000 in a single communal grave. It is believed that two named British soldiers are buried with them. At the back of the cemetery is a group of four soldiers cast in bronze, standing in mourning for their fallen comrades.

Ramscapelle Station

From Langemark headed for Nieuwpoort, halting first in the suburb of Ramskapelle, a vital position on the railway to Diksmuide in 1914. We visited the ruins of the old railway station an important feature in the battle, later used as an observation post. We moved on to the Belgian Military Cemetery nearby, and then to Ramskapelle Communal Cemetery that has CWGC plots from both world wars. Our final call before lunch was Ramskapelle Road British Cemetery at St. Joris just outside Nieuwpoort. This cemetery was opened in 1917 when the British XV Corps held the line from St. Joris to the sea. It holds 841 British and Commonwealth casualties.
 
The final stop on our odyssey (excluding the traditional re-supply halt in Calais) was the British Memorial to the Missing in Nieuwpoort. The Memorial records the names of 547 officers and men who died in operations on the Belgian coast and whose graves are unknown. The bronze plaques listing the names are headed by Binyon's immortal words "They shall grow not old..." This stop doubled as our lunch break with tour members free to examine the Memorial and the nearby Albert Memorial to Belgium's King and Queen during the Great War or to head into the town. The Albert Memorial overlooks the Ganzepoort (Goose's Foot) - the complex of locks and sluices that enabled the Belgian defenders to flood the inland area and frustrate the German invaders in 1914.
 
Back in the UK our serene progress was halted when the radiator on our coach burst. Fortunately we were near to a service area on the M25 and were able to limp in. Some of our party made enquiries about a possible block booking at the on-site motel, but within an hour a replacement coach had us back on the road home.
 
So we completed another highly successful battlefield tour, packed (but not rushed) with interesting visits and backed up by knowledgeable guides - both our own and local personalities.
 
As we neared Pimperne our Branch Chairman suggested "From Mons to the Marne and back" as our theme for the 2011 tour. An issue of ammunition boots was also mentioned. He was joking about the boots....wasn't he?
 
Rod Arnold
Branch Vice Chairman