British tunnellers working in the underground galleries. WWI Sal the ien t C e n t 2014 e n a r IEPER y YPRES YPERN Walking folder Ypres Salient-South - Entry point: The Bluff 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 fi ghting. To help you to explore this The war goes 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 underground trees mark the positions of the two front lines between the entry points. A 4 kilometre walk through the authentic wartime landscape of the Palingbeek domain, Hill 60 and the Caterpillar Entry point: The Bluff (fi lm, info-panels, vantage point) Crater landscape: The Bluff ››› Ravine Wood Ypres Salient cycle route The war site at Hill 60 ››› The Caterpillar Crater People who prefer to explore the old battlefi eld by bike can follow the Ypres 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 offi ces and at Hooge Crater Museum. folder zuid ENGELS.indd 1-2 7/01/16 08:44 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 Sebastopol Mo ort g elweg e w e s m Vijfwegen e k l i P O o s t Yorkshire Trench k P Caesar’s a a & Dug-out i Nose Hemelrijk Sint - Juliaan St. Julien Dressing K le in Station e P o t e a z a e r ls t t s ra e a k t ie Colne Valley r Cemetery B 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 n d 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 P aat Zwa t str rte Remembrance trees a len lee Zwarte Leen ra mo ns Along the Ypres Salient-South walking tst nde tr. aar rbra route 30 (out of a total of 140) remembrance V Ve trees have been planted at points where the Bezoekerscentrum Molenbos Hill 60 old front line crosses a (public) path or road. P You can recognize these trees by the coloured De Palingbeek metal protectors around their trunks. The red Woods t W protectors indicate the German line; the blue aa er t tr vik protectors the French and/or British line. These a Cemetery s se ra s s t o Caterpillar tr were the colours used on the maps of the front s b aa t n t u le during the war. Most of the trees have an info- Dikkebus- p First DCLI o Crater e l board showing the position of the opposing l M a W lines, with a photo from the war years. vijver K Cemetery/ an de The Bluff lp The remembrance trees are elms, a type that ad V was common in the countryside around Ieper K ie o rl from many centuries. As a result of the war m in Astrolab e g and Dutch elm disease, nearly all the old elms n e P Hedge Row s n have now disappeared. The planting of new and Iris e w more resistant elms as remembrance trees is Trench e g also a way of restoring this beautiful species to Cemetery Papenelst its rightful position in the landscape. traat Sluis Vierlingen Voormezele Vaarts t Application Ypres aa Elzenwalle Provinciedomein tr ks Salient 1914 - 1918 Si ee nt- gb The free application Ypres Salient 1914-1918 Elo Palingbeek in oi l indicates the position of all the remembrance sw Ber Pa eg nikk trees and makes suggestions for different ewal The Bluff lestraa P walks from the three entry points. The trees t emit a signal that allows you to locate the position of the front line on a map and on aerial photographs on your cell phone. Highly g e recommended! w e s l e The application is available in the App Store s j O i ude and Google Play. R Vaart Sint-Elooi at ra st ek gbe D lin iep Pa en Eekh da Krater ofstra Katteputten leb at folder zuid ENGELS.indd 3-5 7/01/16 08:44 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 line in Ypres Salient-South that is marked by 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 the First Battle of Ypres (20 October-22 November 1914), the war of movement ground to a halt in a wide arc around Ypres. After the fi rst 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, but only at a huge cost. But the German Spring Offensive of 1918 saw the Salient tighten more closely around the city than ever before. During a fi nal Anglo-Belgian offensive in September 1918, later supported by French and American troops, the Germans fi nally surrender the Ypres Salient for good. With a destructive power never previously seen, four terrible years of war had ravaged the countryside, wiped towns and villages off the map and claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and more than 500,000 soldiers from around The war site at Hill 60, with the craters from April 1915 in the foreground. the world. In the southern part of the Ypres Salient, the front stabilized on a line that ran along the ridge Car park Palingbeek domain to from Wijstschate to Hollebeke, and on to Zillebeke and Geluveld. The positions were already held by the end of November 1914. Apart from minor changes, this situation remained more entry point Ypres Salient-South or less unaltered until 7 June 1917, when the Mine Offensive was launched. During the second half of the 19th century, two major public works projects cut through this The entry point Ypres Salient-South is 180 metres from the main car park (with ridge: the Ypres-Kortrijk railway line (1854) and the Ypres-Comines Canal (1864/1913). This bike racks) of the Palingbeek provincial domain. From the car park, walk in the ‘engineering’ landscape was destined to have a major effect on the formation of the front direction of the cafeteria (white building) and turn right onto the path that runs in during the war. The important war sites at Hill 60 and the Caterpillar Crater lay on either side front of it. The entrance point is a further 200 metres along this path. of the railway cutting; the site at the Bluff is alongside the old canal bed. The entry point for Ypres Salient-South is a pavilion where you can watch an informative fi lm Stories for along the way: (15 min.) about the story of the war in this vicinity.