Battle of Ypres

Although not the most costly battle in terms of human life, the Third Battle of Ypres occupies a unique place in popular perceptions of World War I. This is largely due to the appalling conditions in which it was fought. It was in the Ypres salient that the muddy “moonscape” commonly associated with the Western Front was most powerfully in evidence. In many places the mud was deep enough to drown men or horses unfortunate enough to stumble into it. Today the battlefield has been drained and returned to agriculture. It is however dotted with memorials and cemeteries, none more imposing than the vast Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Tyne Cot. The town itself was almost completely destroyed by German bombardment. It was once planned to leave it ruined, as a memorial to the British war dead. However, the former inhabitants began to return and the town was rebuilt. Today it is a centre for battlefield tourism. The rebuilt medieval Cloth Hall houses the museum “In Flanders Fields” and each evening buglers sound the Last Post at the Menin Gate memorial to missing British and Commonwealth soldiers.