Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to Ypres Salient and Passchendaele, Eighth, Expanded, 100th Anniversary Edition

Torie Holt, Valmai Holt

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781526725455
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Primera Guerra Mundial

This is the most complete guide to the First World War Battlefield of Ypres that has ever been published. Tonie and Valmai Holt, have condensed the knowledge gained from almost a quarter of a century of researching, writing about, visiting and conducting groups around Ypres into this remarkable book. Here are concise descriptions of the military elements of the battles woven into a kaleidoscope of human, literary and travel information. There are recommended, timed itineraries, in each itinerary representing one day's travelling. Every stop on the routes has an accompanying description and often a tale of heroic or tragic action.Memorials large and small, private and official, sites of memorable conflict, the resting places of personalities of note - they are all here and joined together by a sympathetic and understanding commentary that gives the reader a sensitivity toward the events of 1914-1918 that can only be matched by visiting the battlefield itself. This is a guide book written by people who, because they have been directly involved in taking tours themselves, know the form and type of information that best serves the visitor to the battlefield. NEW, FULLY UPDATED EDITIONPACKAGED WITH A FREE, FULL COLOUR FOLD-OUT MAP WORTH '3.99

ITINERARY ONE

• Itinerary One starts in the Grote Markt Ieper, heads north-east towards the area of the October 1914 front line and the April 1915 gas attack, swings east and then south through the area of the 1917 Passchendaele offensive, the 1914 actions along the Menin Road and ends at the Menin Gate.

• The Main Route: Ypres – walking tour: Tourist Office, In Flanders Fields Museum, St Martin’s Cathedral, Munster Memorial, Belgian Memorial, St George’s Memorial Church, ‘Two at Pervyse’ Statue, French and Polish Plaques, Ramparts Walk; HQ of CWGC; Sint Jan – White House CWGC Cemetery, King Albert ‘Barrack’, Wieltje Farm CWGC Cemetery; Wieltje – Oxford Road CWGC Cemetery and 50th Northumbrian Div Memorial, Mousetrap Farm, Seaforth CWGC Cemetery, Cheddar Villa; St Juliaan – German Bunker, 15th Bn 48th Can Highlanders Plaque; Vancouver Corner – Lt Bellew VC Plaque, Brooding Soldier, Totemühle, Observation Point; 15th Bn 48th Can Highlanders Memorial; ‘s-Graventafel – New Zealand Memorial, Bunker, Beecham Farm; Tyne Cot CWGC Cemetery, Memorial Wall, NZ Memorial, Information Centre, KOYLI, Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) & Bedford Memorials, Road to Passchendaele Marker; Passchendaele – Crest Farm Canadian Memorials, Town Hall Plaques, RB Memorial, 66th E Lancs SGW, 85th Can Inf Bn Memorial; French Memorial; 7th Div Memorial; Geluveld – Memorials to Lt Littleboy, S Wales Borderers, 2nd Worcesters; Tower Hamlets; Clapham Junction Gloucester Memorial, 18th (Eastern) Div Memorial; Hooge – KRRC Memorial, Château, Front Line Hooge Trenches/Bunkers, Hooge Crater Museum, Hooge Crater CWGC Cemetery; Menin Road Museum; Sanctuary Wood – CWGC Cemetery, Museum and trenches; Can Memorial, Hill 62; Menin Road; Railway Wood – RE Grave, London Scottish Stone, Private Memorials to Capt Skrine and Capt Bowlby, site of Julian Grenfell’s mortal wound; St Charles de Potyze – French National Cemetery; Aeroplane CWGC Cemetery; Frezenberg – Scottish Memorial; Zonnebeke – Passchendaele Memorial Museum, Can Arty Memorial Plaque, ‘Archaeological Garden’, Flemish Memorial Crypt; Polygon Wood CWGC Cemetery, Buttes New CWGC Cemetery, Australian 5th Div Memorial, New Zealand Memorial, ‘Scott’s Bunker’; Brothers in Arms/Peace Wood; Black Watch Corner & Statue; 4th Can Mounted Rifles/3rd (Toronto) Regt, Mount Sorrel; Hill 60 – Memorials to Q Victoria’s Rifles, 14th (Light) Div, 1st Aust Tunnelling Coy, French Resistance 1944; Caterpillar Crater; Zillebeke Demarcation Stone; Hellfire Corner and Demarcation Stone; Site of White Château; Menin Road South CWGC Cemetery; Last Post at the Menin Gate, RB, & Indian Memorials, Model of Menin Gate.

• Planned duration, excluding stops for refreshments, Ypres Walking Tour, Extra Visits and N.B.s: 10 hours. Driving time only: 1 hour 30 minutes

• Total distance: 38 miles

• Extra Visits are suggested to: Kitchener’s Wood Memorial; 3rd Bn (Toronto Regt) CEF Memorial; Passchendaele New British CWGC Cemetery, Albertina Marker & Cairns Plaque, 4th Can Mounted Rifles, 3rd (Toronto) Bn, Can VCs; Zantvoorde: British CWGC Cemetery, RWF 1st Bn Memorial, Local Churchyard and Turnor & Rose SGW, Household Cav Memorial, Bunker; Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Memorial; Birr Cross Roads CWGC Cemetery; Oude Kortrijkstraat: Sgt H.J. Nicholas VC Memorial, Plaque to Cox VC & Allen DCM; Capt Brodie Private Memorial, Glencorse Wood; Palingbeek Entry Point South, The Bluff.

• N.B. Visits are suggested to: Pte Henshaw Mem, Springfield Farm; Gnr Wheeler Mem, Zillebeke; Shrewsbury Forest Bunker; Memorial to 4th Can Mounted Rifles/3rd (Toronto) Rifles, Mount Sorrel; Larch Wood CWGC Cem.

• Ieper/0 miles/90 minutes/RWC/Map H18

A tour of the Salient is best begun by a Walking Tour around the centre of Ieper and a visit to the museum in the Cloth Hall. Park (‘pay and display’) in the Grote Markt or between St Martin’s Cathedral and the Cloth Hall. Walk into the Grote Markt (known in French as the Grand’ Place, the Market Square, which is the heart of the city).

Start at the Cloth Hall.

• The Cloth Hall/The Grote Markt/Map H18/GPS: 50.85128 2.88683

The massive structure, known as ‘Les Halles’, which served as market place, warehouse and offices during the boom days of the cloth industry and which contained many priceless works of art by some of Belgium’s most accomplished artists, charting Ypres’ history, now houses municipal offices, the tourist office and the magnificent museum. It encloses a space of more than 4,800sq m. The colonnaded structure on the side is the reconstructed ‘Nieuwerck’, the original of which was not finished until 1624. It is in Spanish Renaissance style. The completion of the rebuilding of this section to include the Council offices was commemorated by a plaque in the main entrance, unveiled by King Baudouin in 1967. The successive destruction of the original Cloth Hall is described in many contemporary accounts.

The imposing building facing the Nieuwerck across the square was originally the Notre Dame Hospital, built on ground given to the town by charter of 1187 by Philippe d’Alsace, Count of Flanders and is now the Court of Justice.

OP. Stand in the middle of the square, with your back to the Cloth Hall facing the fountain. Adjoining, and at right angles to, the Nieuwerck is a series of restaurants – the Klein Stadhuis (originally the canteen for the officials working in the Cloth Hall), the Anker and the Trompet, all of which were taverns before the war and whose original buildings dated back to the seventeenth century. At 9 o’ clock the imposing building facing the Nieuwerck across the square was originally the Notre Dame Hospital, built on ground given to the town by charter of 1187 by Philippe d’Alsace, Count of Flanders and is now the Court of Justice. At 10 o’clock is the road leading to the Menin Gate. Continuing clockwise around the Square, the Tea Room/Patisserie at No 9 (qv) was the first building to be rebuilt after the war. The family had located the site of the building in the rubble by finding a small white statue of the Virgin Mary. In the building lodged one of the workers with the Imperial War Graves Commission, William Dunn. He fell in love with one of the daughters of the house, Simone, married her and settled in Ypres, working with the Commission until he retired and, until his death in 1987, a staunch member of the congregation of St George’s Church. They are both buried in Ypres Town CWGC Cemetery (qv).

The Cloth Hall at Night

Today the building still houses the excellent Family Vandaele Chocolaterie (which celebrated its 125th Anniversary in 2016) and is run by Simone’s great-nephew Carl. The Virgin Mary statue still sits in the front bedroom upstairs. E-mail: [email protected]

At 4 o’clock is the old Regina Hotel and Rijselstraat, the road to the Lille (Rijsel) Gate. At 5 o’clock is the road leading to Poperinge and St George’s Church. The shops are interspersed with restaurants and cafés – see Tourist Information page 324.

Walk along the façade of the Cloth Hall to the entrance to

• In Flanders Fields Museum/Regional Visitors’ Centre & Shop, Cloth Hall

In the 40 years since we have been visiting the Salient the Museum has undergone a series of metamorphoses. Originally it was on the ground floor (where the Tourist Office currently is situated), was slightly fusty and dusty but full of fascinating exhibits. Its curator was the characterful Albert Beke who had started as a sweeper. Faithful regular visitors to Ieper had a strong affection for the old ‘Salient Museum’, with its simple, easily understandable presentation, its superb Anthony of Ypres photographs, its familiar displays of personal objects, of items returned by souvenir-hunting veterans (like the figures from the Cloth Hall belfry clock) and its homely, welcoming atmosphere. Many of these regulars were concerned when the Museum was moved upstairs, with a minimum of modernisation, but still with Albert, cigar in his mouth, glass of brandy in hand, waiting to welcome us warmly. The alarm deepened when in 1998 a massive joint investment of 150million Belgian Francs (equating to £3million in 1996) by the European Community, the Province of West Flanders, the Town of Ieper, the Flemish Community and private sponsors was made to create this large museum and Visitors’ Centre in the Cloth Hall.

This completely revamped museum was named after John McCrae’s 1915 poem (qv), emphasising the fact that the museum extends beyond the confines of the Cloth Hall to the battlefields which surround it.

IMPORTANT NOTE. A further major redesign of that Museum, Tourist Office, Boutique and designed for the series of 100th Anniversaries which started in 2014, was inaugurated in April 2012 in a project under the expert eye of Museum Director Piet Chielens. The new Museum occupies virtually the entire Cloth Hall (other than municipal offices), knocking through walls, thereby reverting it to its original vast, impressive open space.

The Flemish Chief Architect, heritage experts, local, regional and Government authorities were involved in the Euro 10 million project together with the competition-winning new architects. Cloakroom, elevator and cafeteria facilities were much improved.

Many changes in the occupancy of the great Cloth Hall are planned for the next few years, with a new City Museum in the old Town Hall in 2018, and Council Offices moving to a new dedicated building. Offices for municipal ceremonial and other functions will remain. Visitors enter through the ground floor of the Cloth Hall which contains the Visitor Centre with a plethora of useful information and leaflets describing the many attractions of this beautiful city and the surrounding countryside, walking and cycling routes, e.g. Ypres Salient Cycle Route, Ramparts Walking Tour…. Also lists of hotels, b&bs and restaurants, forthcoming events etc.

ENTRY POINTS – Walking, Cycling, Driving

It is thoroughly recommended to pick up the free detailed leaflets which describe the new Interactive Entry Points to the Salient – North, East and South (qv) to what are considered to be the most important wartime heritage sites in the old Salient. At each of them is an unmanned Information Centre with Introductory Film, describing the history and significance of that particular location and...