The areas surrounding the Belgian town of Ypres (or Ieper) was the scene of some of the worst fighting of the First World War. As a result it attracts many visitors, whether those wishing to gain some understanding of the battles or those with family connections to the area – for example, a relative who fought, died or disappeared there.
The Ypres Salient
Between 1914 and 1918 the front line ebbed and flowed over an area sometimes as narrow as a few hundred yards to the east of the high ground occupied by the town of Ypres. Ypres itself was flattened and villages such as Passchendaele were obliterated. Today, the area is dotted with memorials, museums and cemeteries to the men of many nationalities (British, German, Australian, French, Belgian, Canadian and Indian among others) who fought and died there.
The Ypres Salient: Organised Tours or Independent Travel?
There is enough to see in the Ypres Salient to occupy many days: an excellent map of the area shows hundreds of sites which might be of interest, including almost 150 war cemeteries with at least 40 graves, 100 memorials or monuments and many others such as bunkers and museums (Major and Mrs Holt’s Battle Map of the Ypres Salient, published independently, available from outlets in Ypres).
For those whose visit is time-limited, or who don’t have any independent transport, their best option is probably a guided tour. Various operators run tours from Ypres and options include day and half-day tours, which will take in the main sights of the Salient. Most trips are led by knowledgeable guides and the price includes any admission fees. Booking ahead is advisable.
Some companies will tailor-make day or half day tours for those with a particular itinerary in mind, but many people seeking a specific site will travel independently.
The Holts’ map, which also lists the locations of graves of noted individuals (who include 46 winners of the Victoria Cross and the model for Peter Pan), is an invaluable aid for the independent traveler.
It’s also possible to see some of the sites on foot, with Ypres containing the impressive and sobering memorial to the missing, the Menin Gate, as well as numerous memorials, several museums (most notably the excellent In Flanders Fields Museum) and two cemeteries. Several other cemeteries lie within a couple of miles walk of the town.
The Main Sights of the Ypres Salient
There are far too many sights to describe individually, but aside from the reconstructed town of Ypres itself the key points of interest to visitors are certain of the cemeteries (mostly of Commonwealth soldiers, whose bodies were not repatriated, although there is a large German cemetery at Langemarck), some sections of trenches and some of the larger memorials.
Among the cemeteries, that at Essex Farm (many sites retain the names given to them by troops, often recalling their own homes), close to Ypres, is of interest because it was here that John McCrae reputedly wrote his famous poem In Flanders Fields. It also contains the grave of a fifteen year old volunteer, while the grave of the oldest man killed in the Salient (at the age of 62) is at the New Irish Cemetery.
The village of Passchendaele was completely obliterated during the fighting and was rebuilt. It is now dominated by the largest Commonwealth War graves cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot. Containing almost 12,000 graves, Tyne Cot has a visitor centre: the nearby village contains the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, where the story of the battle is told.
Memorials are too numerous to describe individually, and many are included in cemeteries (the Australians and New Zealanders have memorials at Tyne Cot) but perhaps the best known is that at Vancouver Corner. Around 4km east of Passchendaele, the Canadian forces are commemorated on the site of the first chlorine gas attack on the Salient.
Very little is left of the trenches themselves, but some of the scars on the landscape remain, such as the Sanbroekmoelen Crater south of Ypres (now filled with water). A museum at Hill 62 has an area of preserved trenches which, while bearing little resemblance to the muddy, treeless expanses of the time, nevertheless gives some idea of the cramped conditions in which the troops lived, fought and died.
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