YPRES SALIENT - Shrewsbury Forest - Zandvoorde Bunker
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 15 Mar, 2019
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Years of visit: 2005, 2006, 2016
Coming from the direction of Ypres we turn right at the Memorial for the 18th Division at Clapham Junction. Later, in the next photo impression, we will inspect more closely both memorials of Clapham Junction.
For now we continue southward on the Pappotstraat.
In 2005 we visited this bunker also. We were walking in a bumpy meadow amidst cows. In 2014 the Belgian authorities renovated the site; but to my eyes the site is now too clean.
The west and blind side of the bunker in 2005.
Zandvoorde - 22 December 1917 |
These two details of a British trench map, drawn after the Third Battle of Ypres, show approximately the same area.
The second detail of the trench map below shows the area south of the village of Zandvoorde.
Back to the bunker itself, and let us inspect it again in more detail.
On the left side there is still an inscription on the concrete wall, mentioning the name of the construction company:
“Built by 3 Company “Armierungs” Batallion 27 - 1916".
I enter the bunker via Guard Block 1, and to my right I see a concrete breastwork corridor, with entrance to 4 other rooms.
| Translation from Dutch: |
| "German Command Post Bunker Zandvoorde Location: southern flank of ridge (40 m.) Function: Reserve Regimental Command Post Structure: armoured concrete, closed wall front side, east side entrance, exit south side, peepholes in the direction of the valley. Rooms: guard block with hall and room. Staff accommodation, 2 offices, 2 rooms Size: length 19 m. Roof: 1 m. to 1.7 m. thick concrete Built: 1916 by “Armierungsbataillon” (fortification engineers) Protected monument 19 April 1999.” |
We return to Clapham Junction for an inspection of the two memorials there, to continue next to explore the northern side of the Menin Road and Polygon Wood.
Continue to the next chapter: "Polygon Wood - Zonnebeke"
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.
