WWI Sal the ien t C e n t 2014 e n a r IEPER y YPRES YPERN Walking folder Ypres Salient-North / Entry point Klein Zwaanhof Three entry points in the Ypres Salient 2018 The story of the Great War is told in an interactive and contemporary way in the In Flanders Fields Museum in the Cloth Hall in Ieper. The museum also explains how the landscape has become the last witness of these four terrible years of fighting. To help you to explore this Fighting for every landscape, you can make use of three entry points created along the old front line of the Ypres Salient: in the north at Klein Zwaanhof (Little Swan Farm); in the east at Hooge Crater Museum; and in the south near Hill 60 and the Palingbeek provincial park. Remembrance metre of high ground trees mark the positions of the two front lines between the entry points. A 2.8 kilometre walk along the front line in the northern part of the Ypres Salient Entry point Klein Zwaanhof ››› The small, original cemeteries The front line at Caesar’s Nose ››› Fortin 17: gentle slopes become hills of blood The Writers’ Path: poets and authors at the front Ypres Salient cycle route Yorkshire Trench and Deep Dug-Out People who prefer to explore the old battlefield by bike can follow theYpres Salient cycle route. This 35-kilometre route starts and ends at the Cloth Hall on the Market Square (Grote Markt) in Ieper. The route links the three entry points: north, east and south. It also passes many other sites of interest related to the First World War. The route folder is available at all local tourist offices and at Hooge Crater Museum. ute Hagebos osro Vrijb S N313 te e n b ee Welsh Memorial k Canadees Monument Langemarkseweg Pilkem Calvaire Breton Steenakkermolen K d le pa in LANGEMARK- e e idg P dw oe Le ze ls tr a a t POELKAPELLE Het Sas Blatezak O os tka ai Boezinge Remembrance trees Sebastopol Along the Ypres Salient-North walking route nine (out of a total of 140) remembrance trees have been planted at points where the old front line crosses a (public) path or road. You can recognize these trees by the coloured metal protectors around their trunks. The red protectors indicate the German line; the blue protectors the French and/or British line. These Mo were the colours used on the maps of the front ort g e e lweg during the war. Most of the trees have an info- w board showing the position of the opposing e s lines, with a photo from the war years. m Vijfwegen e k The remembrance trees are elms, a type that l i P was common in the countryside around Ieper O from many centuries. As a result of the war o s and Dutch elm disease, nearly all the old elms t Yorkshire Trench k P Caesar’s have now disappeared. The planting of new and a a & Dug-out more resistant elms as remembrance trees is i Nose also a way of restoring this beautiful species to Hemelrijkits rightful position in the landscape. Sint - Juliaan Application Ypres St. Julien Dressing K Salient 1914 - 1918 le in The free application Ypres Salient 1914-1918 Station e indicates the position of all the remembrance P o trees and makes suggestionst for different e a z walks from the three entrya points. The trees e r ls emit a signal that allowst you to locate the t s ra position of the front linee on a map and on a k t aerial photographs on yourie cell phone. Highly Colne Valley r recommended! B Cemetery The application is available in the App Store and Google Play. There is WIFI at entry point North. KANAAL IEPER-IJZER KANAAL Fortuinhoek Mo or tel Pilkem Ridge we g Hane beek Hogeziekenweg at stra atte Ieper-Noord K Site John McCrae e j t rring l oorde e N N38 i W W i el tje Brielen ss tra at W e s tk aa N332 ip a d Wieltje N8 N313 Sint-Jan Reigerburg eg Aeroplane ksew ebee Cemetery onn Saint Charles O N369 Z u d e de Potyze B B e el l le le wa w ar a de a b rd e e ek s W t e ra s a tk t a a i N345 weg Brugse Princess Patricia’s Captains Canadian Light Infantry monument Bowlby & Skrine IEPER Oude Kortrijkstraat Begijnenbos 5. traat erdinges Elv RE Grave 2. Bellewaarde START Liverpool Scottish Stone Vijver Bellewaarde 1. t t park Mark a rote a G r t Bellewaarde s 4. s o Ridge b n e N308 3. n ij T u g l e p B e n Kanonhoek l Hoorn- a a Meen n De seweg Kazematten werkpark Hooge Crater Museum Kasteelhof ‘t Hooge N37 6. Zandberg ‘t Hoge Hooge Crater Hoge Voute Cemetery KANAAL IEPER-KOMEN Natuurdomein Dikkebusvijver- beek Verdronken Weide Hogebos Cana dalaan Zill ebe kev ijve N375 r Provinciedomein Zillebeke Gasthuisbossen Hill 62 P Tortelbos ap po N366 ts B tr ij . la nd e r Zandvoordsestr p aat a d Bedford House N331 Cemetery t a a r t s t o Larch Wood p p a Cemetery P Krommenelst Groenenburgbos t P Zw traa art at ens ele ra ol en Zwarte Leen st dem str. art ran Va Verb Molenbos Hill 60 P Bezoekerscentrum De Palingbeek Woods t W aa er t tr vik a Cemetery s se ra s s t o Caterpillar tr s b aa t n t u le Dikkebus- p First DCLI o Crater e l l M a vijver K Cemetery/ The Bluff K o m Astrolab e n P Hedge Row s e Iris w Trench e Cemetery g Papenelst traat Sluis Vierlingen Voormezele Vaarts t aa Elzenwalle Provinciedomein tr ks Sin bee t-E Palingbeek g loo lin isw B Pa eg ernikk ewal The Bluff lestraat P g e w e s l e s j O i ude R Vaart Sint-Elooi at ra st ek gbe D lin iep Pa en Eekh da Krater ofstra Katteputten leb at ee St.-Elooi Golfclub k De Palingbeek g e w e s r e i t n e m r A Huikerbossen ek Vierstraat be ate ch jts Wi Hollebeke Ypres Salient 1915-17 The section of the front in Ypres Salient-North ran from the Ypres-IJzer Canal in Boezinge to what is now the northern ring road (Noorderring), just beyond the villages of Sint-Jan and Wieltje. The front line marked by the remembrance trees is the line as it stood between 1915 and 1917, when the Ypres Salient was at its smallest extent. At the end of 1914, the war of movement ground to a halt in a wide arc around Ypres. After the first gas attack on 22 April 1915, the perimeter of this salient shrank considerably, creating a new front line just 3.5-4.5 kilometres from the city. This new front is sometimes known as the small Ypres Salient. It remained more or less unchanged for 2 years and 3 months. During the Third Battle of Ypres, from 31 July to 10 November 1917, the British broke out of the small Ypres Salient. By the end of the battle, the new front (at its furthest point) was now 8 kilometres from the city. But the German Spring Offensive of 1918 saw the Ypres Salient tighten more closely around the city than ever before. Even so, the allied armies (British, French and Belgian) managed to hold the new line. Exhaustion and the arrival of American troops caused the Germans to finally surrender the Ypres Salient following a combined Anglo- From Klein Zwaanhof to Colne Valley Belgian offensive in September 1918. With a destructive power never previously seen, four terrible years of war had ravaged the The walk starts in Klein Zwaanhof - the name means Little Swan Farm - where countryside, wiped towns and villages off the map and claimed the lives of thousands of the northern entry point has been created, one of three entry points to explore the civilians and more than 500,000 soldiers from around the world. Ypres Salient. During this walk, you will explore a section of the old front line in the northern part of the Ypres Salient, which remained virtually unchanged between 1915 and 1917. Following the devastating gas attack on 22 April 1915, German troops advanced to the location of this northern entry point at Klein Zwaanhof. They quickly dug a new front line You can learn more about the local war history in the farm Klein Zwaanhof, Entry Point North. on the gentle slopes of Pilkem Ridge, which runs between the Ypres-IJzer Canal and the road There is the reconstructed German bunker, Fortin 17, an introduction film and authentic war to Zonnebeke (Zonnebeekseweg). French troops were able to cling on to their positions along material. the Kleine Poezelstraat. Klein Zwaanhof quite literally stands on the site of two British trenches dating from 1915 and 1917. More information about these trenches can be found on the panels in the car park and in the entry point building. North of the car park, along the Kleine Poezelstaat, a number Entry point of remembrance trees mark the position of the allied front line. The first gas attack on 22 April 1915 led to the collapse of the French front. About 1,200 soldiers died from asphyxiation (gas poisoning).