World War I: Ypres

The Village of Voormezeele

The village of Voormezeele in the Ypres Salient was immediately behind the British lines at St. Eloi before it finally fell to advancing German forces during the great Spring push of April 1918.  The village was subsequently retaken by American troops of the 30th Division on 31 August 1918.

A Road on the Battlefield, Westhoek

The major operations of the British ‘Flanders Offensive’ began on 31 July 1917 when British forces, with two French divisions, attacked the German defences along a 16-mile front east of Ypres. For fifteen days before that the British artillery, which included Australian batteries, fired more than four million shells from 3,000 guns. The German defence of the area stretched all the way back to the long sickle-shaped ridge between three and ten kilometres from the town. It was a defence in depth; the front was lightly held and beyond it were arrays of deep concrete shelters or ‘pillboxes’ in which soldiers could shelter from bombardment and emerge to mount machine guns to fire at advancing infantry. Barbed wire was carefully positioned to funnel the advancing men into the fields of fire of the machine guns. Well back, out of sight beyond the ridge, were the German artillery and infantry reserves ready to mount counter-attacks.

A Tired Battalion Marching Out of Line

Battle-Scarred Barracks, Ypres

Surrounded by Invisible Death

A Refugee in the Cellars of Ypres

The Ruins of the Cloth Hall, The Cathedral and Bishop's Palace, Ypres

The Ruined Cathedral in Ypres, seen from the Cloth Hall

The Leaning Madonna and Child