YPRES SALIENT - Menin Road, Stage 1 - Railway Wood - Canadian Light Infantry Memorial - Nécropole St. Charles de Potyze - Wieltje Northumbrian Division Memorial
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 17 Mar, 2019
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Years of visit: 2005, 2006, 2016























From November 1915 underground warfare, tunnelling and mining, was an extended activity of
both belligerent parties, near Bellewaerde, Hooge, Hill 60, Hill 62, and Messines. Mine warfare caused cruel man-to-man fights in pitch dark, narrow and low tunnels. The main goal of mining was to bring a large amount of explosives under an enemy position to blow it up at a specified time. Of course, the enemy was constantly listening and counter-mining.
In the following Ypres Salient Photo Impressions you will see often other relics of mine warfare; water filled craters in the landscape.
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This second panorama northward in 5 overlapping steps, starting north-westward and continuing clockwise. |












Cimétière National St. Charles de Potyze, Potijze
The French National Cemetery of Potijze


"HERE REST THE GLORIOUS RELICS OF MORE THAN 4.000 FRENCH SOLDIERS, WHO DIED ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR ON THE FRONT OF FLANDERS DURING THE GREAT WAR. 1914-1918" |
Sometimes it seems to be forgotten that next to the Belgian and British Armies units of the French Army defended Belgian soil from the early start of the war, occupying various front sectors during the Battles of Ypres.










Later in 1915 the 50th Division was again involved in two large battles: the Battle of Frezenberg Ridge (8 May) and the Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge (16 June), both battles mentioned before on this page. After a stay at the front near Messines the Division was relieved on 10 August by the 19th (Western) Division, and transferred to Montigny-en-Gohelle, France, as part of III Corps.
Source a.o. : Wikipedia











Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion
Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946.
In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert.
Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915

This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes.
After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.


During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”.
We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.


