Zantvoorde British Military Cemetery Belgium by Roy Kevin Holloway
Country:BelgiumLocality:West-VlaanderenIdentified Casualties:449
Location Information
Zandvoorde British Cemetery is located 8 Kms south-east of Ieper town centre, on the Kruisekestraat a road leading from the Meenseweg (N8), connecting Ieper to Menen.
From Ieper town centre the Meenseweg is located via Torhoutstraat and right onto Basculestraat. Basculestraat ends at a main cross roads, directly over which begins the Meenseweg.
7.5 Kms along the Meenseweg in the village of Geluveld lies the right hand turning onto Zandvoordestraat. At the end of the Zandvoordestraat is the left hand turning onto Kriusekestraat.
The cemetery itself is located 100 metres along the Kruisekestraat on the left hand side of the road.
Visiting Information
Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible with some difficulty.
For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.
Historical Information
On 30 October 1914, the village of Zantvoorde (now Zandvoorde) was held by the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, numbering between 300 and 400 men. It was bombarded for over an hour with heavy guns and then taken by the 39th German Division and three attached battalions. The whole front of the 3rd Cavalry Division was driven back to the Klein-Zillebeke ridge. The village could not be retaken and remained in German hands until 28 September 1918. The Household Cavalry Memorial, unveiled by Lord Haig in May 1924, stands on the South side of the village at the place where part of the Brigade was annihilated in 1914.
Zantvoorde British Cemetery was made after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields and nearby German cemeteries. Many were those of soldiers who died in the desperate fighting round Zantvoorde, Zillebeke and Gheluvelt in the latter part of October 1914.
There are now 1,583 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 1,135 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials commemorate 32 soldiers buried in two of the German cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery also contains one Second World War burial.
The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.
Country:BelgiumLocality:West-VlaanderenIdentified
Casualties:449
Location Information
Zandvoorde British Cemetery is located 8 Kms south-east of Ieper town centre, on the Kruisekestraat a road leading from the Meenseweg (N8), connecting Ieper to Menen.
From Ieper town centre the Meenseweg is located via Torhoutstraat and right onto Basculestraat. Basculestraat ends at a main cross roads, directly over which begins the Meenseweg.
7.5 Kms along the Meenseweg in the village of Geluveld lies the right hand turning onto Zandvoordestraat. At the end of the Zandvoordestraat is the left hand turning onto Kriusekestraat.
The cemetery itself is located 100 metres along the Kruisekestraat on the left hand side of the road.
On 30 October 1914, the village of Zantvoorde (now Zandvoorde) was held by the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, numbering between 300 and 400 men. It was bombarded for over an hour with heavy guns and then taken by the 39th German Division and three attached battalions. The whole front of the 3rd Cavalry Division was driven back to the Klein-Zillebeke ridge. The village could not be retaken and remained in German hands until 28 September 1918. The Household Cavalry Memorial, unveiled by Lord Haig in May 1924, stands on the South side of the village at the place where part of the Brigade was annihilated in 1914.
Zantvoorde British Cemetery was made after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields and nearby German cemeteries. Many were those of soldiers who died in the desperate fighting round Zantvoorde, Zillebeke and Gheluvelt in the latter part of October 1914.
There are now 1,583 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 1,135 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials commemorate 32 soldiers buried in two of the German cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery also contains one Second World War burial.
Funerair Zandvoorde
wfez.be
Nieuwelingenkoers Zandvoorde-Zonnebeke 2012
burial
burial diggers buttes new cemetery
Langemark German Cemetery and Pillboxes, Belgium
The WWI German cemetery at Langemarck in Belgium contains many thousands of soldiers buried in groups or in a mass grave. Some German pillboxes, once part of the front line, survive within the site. It is well known for the large number of young people remembered here.
BELGIUM: YPRES: END OF WW1 CEREMONIES
English/Nat
Wednesday sees the 80th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One.
The Belgian town of Ypres will be the focus of ceremonies marking occasion.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Belgium's King Albert II will attend a remembrance service in the town along with a handful of surviving veterans.
From 1914 to 1918, allied troops fought a war of attrition against the Germans in the trenches around Ypres.
They prevented the Kaiser's armies capturing English Channel ports, but paid a terrible cost.
The deaths of 200-thousand British and Commonwealth soldiers are recorded on graves and monuments around Ypres.
Today in the flat, featureless landscape, it seems every twist in the road reveals another cemetery, with its tight ranks of young men's graves.
Decades of exposure to the chill winds of Flanders Fields have eroded the inscriptions on these headstones.
But the 137 British cemeteries in Flanders are meticulously maintained by a team of 190 administrators, gardeners and stonemasons working for the Ypres office of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
24 stonemasons work continuously to restore these graves.
Fewer family members come to mourn the dead these days.
They are slowly being replaced by students and tourists.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
The actual war finished 80 years ago, so most of the people that fought in that war are well gone. We are finding we get a tremendous amount of youngsters, 14 to 15 years old, that are studying recent history for various projects on this kind of things. So mostly its (the cemetery) just becoming more historical than emotional
SUPERCAPTION:Sam Coock, Commonwealth War Graves Supervisor
On Wednesday the Belgian King, Albert II, and the British Queen, Elizabeth II, will honour over 10 million soldiers who died in the First World War.
The Belgian monarch's grandfather Albert I was supreme commander of the Belgian army during the war years.
The monarchs will stand together under the Menin Gate.
This huge arch is carved with the names of 54-thousand Commonwealth soldiers whose bodies were never recovered from the Flanders mud.
They will also visit Saint George's church, where daily services are held to honour the war's victims.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
Saint George's is probably one of the finest churches in the world, because it's not a museum, it's a living church and we commemorate World War One and World War Two, the Korean battle and also the Falklands and Vietnam and everything that's going on in the world today. It's a place of peace and every article in this church is commemorating somebody's son or daughter that was lost in the great battles around here.
SUPERCAPTION: Father Graham Oliver, Saint George's church
There are other reminders of the Great War around Ypres.
In places the trenches where soldiers fought and died have been preserved as a monument to them.
And this local museum also helps to keep their memory alive.
Its displays include this film of Albert I entering Ypres after the armistice.
On Wednesday 80 years later his grandson will lead the world in commemorating all those who lost their lives.
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Polygon Wood - ANZAC cemetery
Belgium June 2010
A very small cemetery, Adinkerke, Belgium
Tidying up my 'directory', I came across this lot, which shows the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Adinkerke, Belgium.
funerair zonnebeke.mpg
vooroorlogs zonnebeke-passendale-geluveld-zandvoorde-beselare
Buttes CWGC cemetery, clip two, July 2009
Another clip showing Buttes cemetery, Polygon wood, Belgium
Hooge Crater
A visit to Hooge Crater, a crater created by an underground mine exploded in the First World War.
Tyne Cot Cemetery - Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in World War One
A group of year 9 students from Devon, England, had the chance to visit some of the places where major events happened in World War One. This once in a lifetime opportunity gave the students an insight into what life in the trenches and real life battle plans where like. please enjoy this video of on of the many cemetery's the students had visited in Belgium and France.
Ramparts Cemetery, Ypres
A visit of remembrance.
Het Ijzerfront
Impressies langs het IJzerfront van WO I. Van Nieuwpoort tot Passendale.
The White Horses Demo in Zandvoorde 21/03/2015
WW1 - Shrapnel Charlie 2008 - Polygon Wood - Belgium
Shrapnel Charlie (Ivan Sinnaeve) in his workshop talking about artillery shells from the First World War. Talks about the fuses they use with special markings and how they are carried in the field and put together by the Chinese Labour force and how gas bottles of mustard gas was placed within the shrapnel shell for dispersal after the explosion.
For more information go to my WW1 Research website Curryww1.com
Help find the Photos and Identify WW1 Diggers from the Great War.
WW1 - Shrapnel Charlie 2008 - Polygon Wood - Belgium
Shrapnel Charlie (Ivan Sinnaeve) in his workshop showing how to make lead soldiers out of WW1 melted shrapnel balls. He is known all around the world for what he does and a niece bloke with a good sense of humour. Johan Vanhaverbeke a local teacher was kind enough to take me to his house and show me what he does in his spare time. Ivan gave me a lead Australian soldier at Menin Gate a few days earlier and I was able to bury it deep within the gravesite of Stan Hastings Marchment at Belgium Battery Corner Cemetery. Very Grateful for this action and I will remember him for that.
For more information go to my WW1 Research website Curryww1.com
Help find the Photos and Identify WW1 Diggers from the Great War.
German Pill Box WWI
This is from the Army Heritage Center from outside of Harrisburg, PA.
Menin Road Ypres
Belgium - June 2010
boesinghe - the forgotten battlefield WW1 trenches - belgium - 2000
VISITED THESE WW1 TRENCHES IN 2000.THEY ARE NOW HIDDEN FOREVER I BELIEVE BY A BRAND NEW INDUSTRIAL ESTATE.THESE HALF A DOZEN OR SO PICTURES ARE SCANS OF PHOTOS I TOOK ( PRE DIGITAL ) NOT THE BEST QUALITY BUT A SNAPSHOT IN TIME . A HISTORY OF THE SITE IS BELOW
After the last shell had fallen in 1918, the ground at Boesinghe soon became forgotten and abandoned. No houses were built on the area of the front lines east of the canal, and the fields were used for pasture. In the late 1990s the ground passed into the hands of developers, factory sites were planned and construction began. A group of local historians and archaeologists, called The Diggers, realised what might lie just below the surface and obtained a licence to work on the site. The result was an amazing survey of a section of the Western Front battlefields, which had never been attempted before.
The result was an amazing survey of a section of the Western Front battlefields, which had never been attempted before.
During the course of their work whole trench systems were unearthed, dugouts entered and every artefact connected with life at the front was uncovered. In the process the remains of more than 120 World War One soldiers were also found; British, French and German. None were ever identified, which is hardly surprising given the nature of the battlefield at Boesinghe and the fact that many were found in No Man's Land itself.
Soon the battlefield at Boesinghe will be completely covered in new buildings, and the trenches just below the surface lost forever. However, the work of The Diggers has given an insight into a part of the line that was typical of the British sector of the Western Front, and the life experienced by the average soldier in the front line.