2007 Ypres Memorial Walk

2007 Ypres Memorial Walk

Saturday 28^th July - Wednesday 1^st August 2007 (5 days)

£435 (plus single supplement £65)

2007 is the 90^th anniversary of the Battle of Paschendaele.

Our tour will commence with a series of walks on the Messines Ridge. The set-piece battle supported by the 19 underground mines was a necessary precursor to the main offensive.

One of the two Petit Bois Mine Craters in the 16th Irish Division's Sector

We will visit the sites of several of the mines and also climb the Kemmelberg, the main artillery observation point in the Salient.

The remaining time on the Ypres battlefield will be spent walking from Ypres to Paschendaele. Our route will cover the front line of the 31^st July and the series of advances made through the following three and a half months of bitter fighting.

You will have the opportunity to visit Tyne Cott Cemetery and walk in the footsteps of the British and Empire troops who finally captured the Paschendaele Ridge in November 1917.

Tyne Cott Cemetery

Tuesday afternoon is set aside for a diversion to the coast. Here the German Marinekorps manned the extensive series of coastal defences. The Battery Aachen of 1915 vintage now forms a part of an Atlantic wall museum.

Battery Aachen at Ostend

Our final morning in the Salient will be spent in the rear areas near Poperinghe, giving us a chance to visit some of the lesser known cemeteries. Generally these were the sites of the Casualty Clearing Stations that received the numerous wounded from the battle. Some such as Brandhoek are regularly visited, others are a little off the beaten track.

For our other tour to the Ypres Salient go to 2007 Ypres, The Poppy Parade And Winter Battlefield Walk

Saturday 28th

Travel to our hotel. A briefing will be given on the coach, and a short guided tour offered of Ypres before attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate

Sunday 29th

We shall discuss the circumstances by which the Germans gained possession of the Messines Ridge in October 1914 and the great mining offensive proposed by Sir John Norton Griffiths.

Following the use of small mines by the Germans at Givenchy in December 1914, Norton Griffiths persuaded the War Office to commence deep mining at Messines in early 1915. This was intended to support the great offensive of 1916 in Flanders .

Key sites will be the Lost Mines at Ploegsteert, Kruistraat craters, Spanbrookmolen and the Petit Bois sector.

The battle of the 7^th June 1917 was meticulously planned by Plummer. We shall study several of the key aspects of the battle. Our afternoon walk will commence at Ploegsteert and will take us progressively Northwards along the ridge towards Messines and Wytschaete. Here the 16^th Irish Division and 36^th Ulster Division fought side by side.

The Tower at the Irish Peace Park

The day will conclude at the Irish Peace Park .

Monday 30th

Our battlefield walk will commence near Weiltje and the site of the proposed A19 extension. From here we will follow the 39^th and 51^st Highland Divisions in the assault of the 31^st July 1917. Our route will take us to Langemark.

Goumier Farm Blockhouse - the structure on the right is British to "turn" the bunker after it was captured on the 31st July 1917

After lunch at Langemark we will present the 20^th Light Division and 29^th Divisions and then travel by coach to visit the Northern flank of the battlefield and discuss the various infantry and tank actions of October 1917.

From Poelcapelle we shall then walk to Paschendaele village on the crest of the Ridge. Our final visit will be to the site of Celtic Wood far on side of the Paschendaele Ridge. This was the scene of an abortive trench raid by the 37^th Battalion AIF. Ninety years on, the events of that day are still shrouded in mystery.

Tuesday 31st

Tuesday will be our day for visiting the Southern part of the Gheluvelt Plateau and addressing the push towards Polygon Wood in the Battles of the Menin Road Ridge (20^th September) and Polygon Wood (26^th September).

Scots Post in Polygon Wood

Our morning walk will start near Glencorse Wood and thence through Polygon Wood towards Zonnebeke and a visit to the museum.

From here the 4th October battlefield of the Anzac Divisions and Tyne Cott will be ahead of us. We will follow the highly successful 2^nd Australian Division attack which will take us to the cemetery.

Following a short lunch stop at Hooge, we will head North to the Atlantic Coast at Ostend.

Here we will visit the Atlantic Wall Museum in the former Royal Palace of Raversijde. Whilst a part of this is WW2, a considerable portion of the complex is the Battery Aachen, built in 1915.

A display in the Battery Aachen at the Atlantic Wall museum at Ostend - A German Marinekorps Telephone Exchange

Wednesday 1st

A visit to the rear areas of the Ypres battlefield. We shall visit some of the “off the beaten track” cemeteries which in 1917 were casualty clearing stations. Typical of these are Gwalia farm, Dozinghem, Mendinghem and Hospital farm. These areas also provided the sites for many of the heavy gun batteries and the rest camps that almost every soldier who passed through the Salient would have been familiar with.

We shall return to Ypres in time for anyone who wishes to grab a quick lunch before our departure for Calais .

Our hotel will be the ****Ariane, Ypres. This is an attractive modern hotel with excellent facilities, situated a few minutes walk from the historic Cloth Hall and the Menin Gate Memorial.

Go back to the 2007 Tour Programme, the Flanders Tours Home Page or the Flanders Tours Booking Form