Ypres and the Battles of Ypres

Excerpt: ... GERMAN CEMETERY AT TERHAND. DUMMY FUNERAL MONUMENT WHICH WAS REALLY A GERMAN OBSERVATION-POST Leave the Dadizelle road on the right. The road hereabouts is camouflaged. Numerous small forts may be seen on both sides of the plateau, especially on the right. The largest of them was used as a telephone exchange. After passing the place called Molenhoek the tourist comes to the Passchendaele-Wervicq road, now impassable. Leave the car at the fork, and go on foot through the ruins of Becelaere, as far as the church on the right. RUINED VILLAGE OF BECELAERE Return to the fork and take the right-hand uphill road. On 63 the plateau there are many shelters. To the west of the road from Becelaere to Zonnebeke lay Polygone Wood, which was entirely destroyed. The British made two unsuccessful attempts (July 31 and August 16, 1917) to take this strongly fortified wood, succeeding eventually on September 20 (see p. 28). Evacuated by the British in April, 1918, the wood was finally recaptured by the Allies in October, 1918. Beyond the place called Noordenhoek there is a bend in the road. On the left, Zonnebeke Pond, the ruined château, and the remains of a gasometer come into sight (photo below). At the place called Broodseinde take the Ypres-Roulers road on the left, to visit the ruins of Zonnebeke. Zonnebeke was taken in 1914 by the Germans, who made an outpost of it in front of their lines. The village was recaptured on September 26, then lost in April, 1918, and finally retaken in the following October. Return to the fork (which was commanded by numerous small forts), and turn to the left: military cemetery at the side of the road. In the fields on the right, 200 yards beyond the level crossing, there is a monument to the memory of 148 officers and men of the Canadian 85th Battalion (photo, p. 64). Passing through shell-torn country, Passchendaele-now razed to the ground-is reached. All that remains of the church is the mound seen in the...