YPRES SALIENT - Langemark- Poelkapelle - St. Juliaan

  • by Pierre Grande Guerre
  • 13 Mar, 2019

Year of visit: 2005

We start at Langemark, at the German War Cemetery, next we continue via Madonna and Poelkapelle to St. Juliaan. A trip through the former German lines until 16 August 1917.
Langemark:  the German War Cemetery, or the "Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Langemarck".
Near the gate: 33.000 unknown German soldiers, NCO's, and officers, buried in one grave. In total the cemetery contains burials of 44.929 corpses.
On the cemetery there large bronze panels, like this one, with 25.000 names of soldiers and officers, buried in a mass grave.
One of the three German Bunkers amidst the graves.
The bunker in the middle.
The bunker near the road side of the cemetery.
On the west edge of the cemetery stands a sculpture group by professor Emil Krieger, overlooking the cemetery.
We leave the Cemetery and continue in the direction of Madonna.
Along the road from Madonna to Vijfwegen we find relics of 2 German machine-gun bunkers.
We continue to the centre of the village of Poelkapelle, where we visit the memorial for the French aviator and Ace, ...
... Georges Guynemer, who crashed near this place in 1917.
“11 SEPTEMBER 1917 - 
ON THIS CORNER OF BELGIAN SOIL
DESTROYED BY THE WAR FELL
FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE VIOLATED RIGHT
A FRENCH HEROE GEORGES GYUNEMER
WHO’S VICTORIOUS WINGS CONQUERED
AT 21 YEARS A INCOMPARABLE GLORY
IN THE SKY OF COMBATS
THE BELGIAN AVIATORS
WHO HAD THE HONOUR TO FIGHT ALONG HIS SIDE
HAVE RAISED THIS MEMORIAL
AS A WITNESS OF THEIR ADMIRATION
BORN IN THE BROTHERHOOD OF ARMIES
8 JULY 1923”
“GUYNEMER
LEGENDARY HEROE FALLEN IN
OPEN SKIES OF GLORY AFTER THREE
YEARS OF FIERCE BATTLE WILL REMAIN
THE MOST PURE SYMBOL OF THE QUALITIES
OF HIS RACE: TENACITY, UNTAMABLE
ENERGY, WILD COURAGE, SUBLIMELY
ANIMATED BY THE UNFALTERING FAITH
IN VICTORY. HE LEAVES TO THE FRENCH
SOLDIER AN UNSURPASSED MEMORY
WHICH WILL LIFT THE HOPE OF SACRIFICE
AND WILL PROVOKE THE MOST
NOBLE ARDOUR
 
11 SEPTEMBER 1917”
We continue to St. Juliaan. At the outskirts of the village is a huge German bunker on private farm grounds,
nicknamed by the British "Cheddar Village". Since 2016 the bunker is barely visible from the road, being surrounded by modern agricultural buildings.
We are now in the area around St. Juliaan, where the Germans deployed the first gas attacks on the Western Front on 22 April 1915.
In the centre of the village of St. Juliaan stands a modest memorial for the victims of the gas attacks:
"FOR IT's FALLEN HEROES"
North west of St. Juliaan:  the memorial of the Dolmen and Cross Memorial for the French victims, of the first gas attack, mostly soldiers from colonial forces from Algeria.
A bronze orientation table shows the situation of the French troops around St. Juliaan on 22 april 1915.
Roeselarestraat, St. Juliaan. A German bunker.
North of the village of St. Juliaan, at the location of "Vancouver Corner" stands the memorial of "The Canadian", or "The Brooding Soldier", a Memorial to commemorate the Canadian victims of the gas attacks of 22-24 April 1915, on and near this location.
We continue on the next page to Passendale. 
 Continue to the next chapter: "'s Graventafel - Tyne Cot Cemetery -Passendale Ridge".
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