WW1 Battlefields

Des na on Guide:

WW1 Ba leďŹ elds

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Contents Click below to jump straight to your subject area

Ypres Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony In Flanders Fields Museum Essex Farm Cemetery Langemark German Cemetery

Somme ...3 ...3 ...3 ...3

Passchendaele Memorial Museum Platoon Experience at Passchendaele Hooge Crater Museum Sanctuary Wood Museum, Hill 62 Tyne Cot Bri(sh Cemetery

...4 ...4 ...4 ...4 ...4

Bayernwald (Croonaert Wood) Messines Ridge Bri(sh Cemetery Talbot House Poperinge Yorkshire Trench

...5 ...5 ...5 ...5 ...5

Belwaerde Theme Park

...6

Albert 1916 Museum Historial de la Grande Guerre Delville Wood Museum

...6 ...6 ...6

Thiepval Memorial and Visitors Centre Newfoundland Park Lochnagar Crater SheďŹƒeld Memorial Park

...7 ...7 ...7 ...7

Ulster Memorial Tower Visitor Centre Wellington Quarry Vimy Ridge

...8 ...8 ...8

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Ypres Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony www.lastpost.be The Last Post, the tradi(onal final salute to the fallen, is played by the buglers in honour of the memory of the soldiers of the former Bri(sh Empire and its allies, who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. It is the inten(on of the Last Post Associa(on to maintain this daily act of homage in perpetuity.

In Flanders Fields Museum www.inflandersfields.be/en The In Flanders Fields Museum presents the story of the First World War in the West Flanders front region. It is located in the renovated Cloth Halls of Ypres, an important symbol of war(me hardship and later recovery.

The new permanent exhibi(on tells the story of the invasion of Belgium and the first months of the mobilisa(on, the four years trench war in the Westhoek, the end of the war and the permanent remembrance ever since. €1 contribu(on for bracelet with a microchip to record your visit. This can be redeemed back at the end of the visit, or keep the bracelet and informa(on.

Essex Farm Cemetery www.ww1baBlefields.co.uk/essexfarm

Free of charge Every day at 8pm at the Menin Gate, Ypres

Students under 26 yrs €4 Adults: €9 Bell Tower Visit: €2pp Open daily 10am – 6pm April to 15 November, 10am- 5pm 16 November to 31 March. Last entry 1hr before closing Loca3on: Market Square, Ypres

Free of charge

There are 1,200 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 103 of the burials are uniden(fied but special memorials commemorate 19 casual(es known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and is on the site of the Bri(sh Front Line. It was in Essex Farm Cemetery that Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps wrote the poem ' In Flanders Fields' in May 1915.

Open Daily

Langemark German Cemetery www.ww1baBlefields.co.uk/langemarck

Free of charge Open Daily

There are rela(vely few German cemeteries on the Western Front baBlefields. As the invaders the land that France and Belgium was prepared to grant was limited, in comparison to their Bri(sh allies. Although this cemetery is much smaller in area than Tyne Cot, in fact it has many more burials. This is because the burials are effec(vely in the form of several mass graves.

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Passchendaele Memorial Museum www.passchendaele.be During the Bri(sh aBack of 1917, there were 500.000 casual(es in 100 days for a gain territory of only 5 miles.

Passchendaele became an interna(onal symbol of senseless military violence in its most cruel form. In the Memorial Museum the memory of the baBle is kept alive through images and movies, and a large collec(on of historical artefacts. Combine this with Platoon Experience – see below Platoon Experience at Passchendaele www.passchendaele.be

Museum visit €4.50 per student.

Accompanying staff free of charge.

Guide: €50 per group of 25 Open daily 9.00-17.00, closed from 16 December to 1 Feb. last entry 4pm Loca3on: Zonnebeke €37pp group min 20

Follow in the footsteps of the 40th Australian BaBalion on 4th Oct 1917 with this interac(ve visit including a 3km baBlefield walk in full uniform, an authen(c ‘Tommy Tucker’ meal & a guided tour of the Memorial Museum

Open 09.00—17.00 Not available Jan, Feb, 15-30 Nov and Dec *ALL GROUP MEMBERS MUST BE OVER 14 YEARS OLD

Hooge Crater Museum www.hoogecrater.com/en

Students €2, Adults €5 Guide: €25

The Bri(sh posi(on in the ‘Hooge’ area had become quite unstable in the summer of 1915. The Brits tried to eliminate this for(fied German bas(on with a limited but well targeted aBack. They let explode more than 1700 kg of dynamite in a tunnel, made by the special Tunneling Companies of Royal Engineers. All this happened on July 19th, 1915. This crater was later recalled ‘Hooge Crater’.

Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am6pm, Sunday 3ll 9pm. Closed Monday.

Sanctuary Wood Museum, Hill 62 www.greatwar.co.uk/museum-sanctuary-wood.htm

€4 per person

Sanctuary Wood, located on the slopes of Hill 62, close to the village of Zonnebeke, became part of the front line following the end of the Second BaBle of Ypres in May 1915. It saw heavy figh(ng when the Canadians were here in June 1916, as the nearby Canadian Memorial commemorates. In July 1917 it saw figh(ng in the early stages of Third Ypres.

Tyne Cot Bri sh Cemetery www.greatwar.co.uk/cemetery-tyne-cot

Loca3on: Hooge, 4km from Ypres

Open April- Sept 9.30am- 7pm October – March 10am-6pm Loca3on: Zillebeke,3km from Ypres

Open daily Located 9km north east of Ypres

Tyne Cot is the largest CWGC Cemetery on the Western Front with 11,953 burials. This includes those believed to be buried in the Cemetery, or whose graves had been destroyed. This would have occurred because the Cemetery was started in October 1917, aOer the taking of the nearby village of Paschendaele, but figh(ng con(nued in the region and the Germans retook the ground and held it between 13 April to 28 September 1918.

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Bayernwald (Croonaert Wood) www.heuvelland.be

Students under 26 yrs €1.50 Open daily 9am-6pm

Discover the German site with its 2 listening shaOs, 300 metres of trenches and 4 bunkers. Informa(on panels and a scale model explain the events of war and life at the front

Located Heuvelland nr Ypres

Messines Ridge Bri sh Cemetery

Free of charge

The Cemetery stands on ground that belonged to the 'Ins(tu(on Royale' and was created aOer Armis(ce when graves were brought in from the baBlefield around Messines. There are now 1,534 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery.

Open daily

Talbot House www.talbothouse.be

Students €5, accompanying teachers free of charge

Experience the atmosphere and surroundings of a typical Flemish house used as a sanctuary for soldiers during WW1

Open Daily 10am-5.30pm. closed Monday

Loca3on: 9.5km south of Ypres

Max group size 60 Loca3on: Poperinge The Town of Poperinge During the First World War Poperinghe was the centre of a large concentra(on of troops, and there were many camps in the countryside around it. It was described in a very early baBlefield guide as "a centre for recrea(on, for shopping and for rest". The popula(on before the War was about 12,000, but in 1917 there were as many as 250,000 soldiers billeted in the area.

Yorkshire Trench www.greatwar.co.uk/yorkshire-trench

Free of charge Open Daily

In 1992 a group of amateur archaeologists named “The Diggers” first discovered the remains of an original Bri(sh trench. Between 1998 and 2000 they spent many hours digging and examining the trench, which also had tunnelled dugouts. In addi(on to many artefacts they discovered the remains of 155 First World War soldiers. The casual(es they discovered were Bri(sh, French and German, lost in baBle and never recovered for seventy years.

Loca3on: nr Boezinge

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Students €18.00, Adults €20

Belwaerde Theme Park www.bellewaerdepark.be/en Bellewaerde is a theme park in the West-Flemish countryside near Ypres (Belgium). Established in 1954 on grounds that were the loca(on of the BaBle of Bellewaerde during World War I, named aOer the old castle that to this day stands near the main entrance of the park. Bellewaerde is the oldest opera(ng theme park in Belgium. Originally a zoo and safari, the park expanded in the early eigh(es to become more of a general theme- and thrill park, catering towards teens and families

Opening hours as per website calendar Loca3on 5km east of Ypres

Somme Albert 1916 Museum www.musee-somme-1916.eu

Students €3.50, Adults €6.00 Open daily 0900 – 1800

Being a museum of reference, the Somme 1916 Museum is located inside a tunnel that dates back to the 13th century, rehabilitated into an air-raid shelter in 1938. Here, you may discover the life of soldiers in the trenches during the 1st of July 1916 offensive. With an excep(onally rich collec(on, you will discover display cases presen(ng various objects, material and weapons used in that period.

Loca3on in the centre of Albert

Historial de la Grande Guerre www.historial.org

Students €4, 1:10 adults FOC, Extra Adults €4.50

Museum showing the experiences of living and figh(ng through WW1 and the effects it has had on the 20th century.

The museum opened in 1992. It was thought out with the support of Europeans historians, some First World War specialists. The collec(ons are composed of thousands of objects, posters, postcards, weapons, uniforms, and so on. The Historical of The Great War takes an interna(onal and compara(st look at the first world conflict.

Open Thursday-Tuesday 0930am – 5pm

Delville Wood Museum www.delvillewood.com

Free of Charge

Delville Wood earned an eminent place in the country's military history as the symbol of South Africa's sacrifice and courage. In July 1916, the 1st South African Infantry Brigade carried out one of the greatest feats of arms during the Great War. The museum honours all South Africans who fell in the various conflicts of the 20th Century.

Loca3on: Chateau de Peronne

Open Tuesday- Sunday 10am-4pm ( 5.30pm in summer) Closed December and January Loca3on: Longueval

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Thiepval Memorial and Visitors Centre www.thiepval.org.uk

Free of charge Open Daily

The Thiepval Memorial bears witness to the fact that a high percentage of those who died in the BaBle of the Somme have no known grave. Many bodies having been lost en(rely in the pulverised baBlefield, and many others not found un(l baBlefield clearance took place aOer the war, by which (me all trace of their iden(ty had disappeared in most cases.

Newfoundland Park, Beaumont Hamel www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-newfoundland-park.htm

Loca3on: Thiepval

Free of Charge Open Daily

This park, located near Beaumont Hamel, is one of only a few sites on the Western Front where the ground remains largely untouched from when the First World War ended. The village of Beaumont Hamel was one of the fortress villages located just behind the German lines on the 1st of July 1916. This posi(on commanded the valley over which the aBacking troops had to cross. The Bri(sh aBack on this part of the line was undertaken on that day by the 29th Division, part of VIII Corps.

Lochnagar Crater www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-lochnagar-crater.htm

Loca3on: on the east bank of the Ancre River, on the D73 between Hamel village and Auchonvillers village

Free of charge Open Daily

The Lochnagar mine crater on the 1916 Somme baBlefields in France is the largest man-made mine crater created in the First World War on the Western Front. It was laid by the Bri(sh Army's 179th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers underneath a German strongpoint called “Schwaben Höhe”. The mine was exploded two minutes before 07.30 am Zero Hour at the launch of the Bri(sh offensive against the German lines on the morning of 1st July 1916.

Sheffield Memorial Park www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-sheffield-park.htm

Loca3on: La Boiselle

Free of charge Open Daily

Sheffield Memorial Park remembers the men of the Bri(sh Army's 31st Division who served with the Pals BaBalions. Of the 12 baBalions in the 31st Division, all but two were recruited from Yorkshire, one of these being from Durham and the other from Lancashire. The Pals BaBalions were formed in the autumn of 1914 following a recrui(ng drive by the War Office. The Memorial Park is in the loca(on of the Bri(sh Front Line for 1st July 1916. At the (me there were four small woods in this sector. They were known on Bri(sh Army maps from south to north as MaBhew Copse, Mark Copse, Luke Copse and John Copse.

Loca3on: near Serre village

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The Ulster memorial Tower Visitor Centre www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/museum-ulster-tower-visitorcentre.htm The Visitor Centre was opened in 1994. It is managed by the Somme Associa(on and dedicated to the memory of the men of the 36th Ulster Division who were in ac(on at this place on 1st July 1916. The display of artefacts, including some very rare items, held by the small museum includes items recovered from the baBlefields around the Memorial Tower, and many personal items specifically related to the soldiers of the 36th Ulster Division.

Wellington Quarry www.greatwar.co.uk/french-flanders-artois/museum-wellingtonquarry.htm The Wellington Quarry - la Carrière Wellington was opened in 2008. It is an underground museum which has been carefully and sensi(vely created in a sec(on of the many kilometres of tunnels dug by the Bri(sh Army in the 1914-1918 war. The First World War tunnels connect with original tunnels and quarries da(ng back to the middle ages and Roman (mes underneath the city of Arras.

Free of charge Open Tuesday- Sunday 10am- 5pm (6pm May-Sept) Closed Mondays, and December, January and February Loca3on: nr Thiepval

Entry €3.30 Open daily 10am – 12.30pm/13.30pm- 6pm Closed January Groups of up to 20 per tour by audio guide (larger groups will be split) Loca3on: Arras

Vimy Ridge www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/memorials/france/vimy

Free of charge guided tourapprox 50 mins

Canada's most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majes(c and inspiring Canadian Na(onal Vimy Memorial which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge.

Students can take a guided tour of the tunnels, trenches and cemeteries in groups of up to 20 people.

Open April—Sept: Tues—Sun: 10.00—18.00 Monday : 12.00—18.00 Oct—March: Tues—Sun: 09.00—17.00 Monday : 11.00—17.00 Loca3on: 5km north of Arras

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