![Poppies Field in Flanders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Poppies_Field_in_Flanders.jpg)
Several
war memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
s and
war grave
A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations.
Definition
The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...
s have been erected in the
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
region
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
to memorialize the events that took place there during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. By the end of 1914 the
Western Front ran from
Nieuwpoort on the North Sea Coast to the Swiss Border. After the war, many memorials were erected in and along the area through which the front line had been. Five memorials are
carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
s, musical instruments of bells, which memorialize the loss of lives,
cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...
, and bells during the war. Most of the war memorials in Flanders can be found in the
Province of West Flanders
West Flanders ( nl, West-Vlaanderen ; vls, West Vloandern; french: (Province de) Flandre-Occidentale ; german: Westflandern ) is the westernmost Provinces of Belgium, province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian prov ...
(), which comprises the arrondissements of
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
,
Diksmuide
(; french: Dixmude, ; vls, Diksmude) is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of proper and the former communes of Beerst, Esen, Kaaskerke, Keiem, Lampernisse, Leke, N ...
,
Ypres
Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though
the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...
,
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Regio ...
,
Ostend
Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...
,
Roeselare
Roeselare (; french: Roulers, ; West Flemish: ''Roeseloare'') is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke.
The ...
,
Tielt
Tielt (; french: Thielt) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Tielt proper and the villages of Aarsele, Kanegem, and Schuiferskapelle.
History
Some traces of Gallo-Roman occu ...
and
Veurne
Veurne (; french: Furnes, italic=no, ) is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Veurne proper and the settlements of , , , , , Houtem, , , Wulveringem, and .
History
Origins up ...
.
Military cemeteries in West Flanders
WW I memorials in West Flanders
Yser Area
There are many monuments and memorials in this sector which celebrate the
Battle of the Yser
The Battle of the Yser (french: Bataille de l'Yser, nl, Slag om de IJzer) was a battle of the First World War that took place in October 1914 between the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide, along a stretch of the Yser River and the Yperlee C ...
and other events. These include –
Ypres Salient
Historical background
The
Ypres Salient
The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War.
Ypres district
Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. ...
was the site of five battles during World War I: The
First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres (french: Première Bataille des Flandres; german: Erste Flandernschlacht – was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. Th ...
(19 October – 22 November 1914), the
Second Battle of Ypres
During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...
(22 April – 15 May 1915), the
Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (31 July – 6 November 1917), the
Fourth Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of the Lys (9–29 April 1918), and the
Fifth Battle of Ypres
The Fifth Battle of Ypres, also called the Advance in Flanders and the Battle of the Peaks of Flanders (french: Bataille des Crêtes de Flandres) is an informal name used to identify a series of World War I battles in northern France and southe ...
(28 September – 2 October 1918).
Memorials to the French
Memorials to military units
=Divisional memorials
=
=Regimental memorials
=
=Memorials linked to Hill 60
=
Memorials to the Missing
In the Ypres Salient battlefields there are approximately 90,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers whose remains could not be identified for burial in a grave marked with their name. Similarly, there are also believed to be about 90,000 German soldiers whose remains were never identified as was the case with the remains of many French soldiers found on the battlefields. For the 90,000 missing British Forces there are four memorials in the Ypres Salient which cover the whole period of the First World War, except the months of August and September 1914:
* The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
* The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.
* The New Zealand Memorial (Tyne Cot Cemetery).
* The Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial.
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing south of Messines is technically outside the sector known as the Ypres Salient, and commemorates the missing of the Lys battlefield sector. Its proximity to Ypres means that many visitors to the Ypres Salient include this in their visit to the area. Names of missing German soldiers are inscribed on oak panels and bronze tablets at Langemark German cemetery and French soldiers are commemorated in several ossuaries in the area.
=Menin Gate Memorial
=
=Tyne Cot and New Zealand Memorial
=
=Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial
=
=New Zealand Memorial in Buttes Cemetery
=
=Ploegsteert Memorial
=
Belgian municipal and parochial memorials
Most villages and towns in West Flanders have their own war memorials, either civil or parochial. These can be traced in this website.
[
]
Demarcation Stones
Memorial carillons
Throughout the German invasion of Belgium, the heavy artillery fire destroyed many of the country's bell towers
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
, many of which contained swinging bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
sets, carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
s, and other large bells. In the subsequent occupation, Belgian carillons fell completely silent. Germans would demand carillonneur
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
s to continue ringing their instruments, but they often fled or refused. In other areas, occupiers banned the ringing of bells. To the allies, the destroyed and unused bells were highly publicized and romanticized in poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and in propaganda. Writers described the bells as if they were in mourning, waiting for liberation to ring out again that peace has calmed the world. As a result of this romanticization, carillons were constructed in Flanders over time in the name of world peace
World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...
and in memory of those who died during the war:
* In Leuven
Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...
, 16 American engineering societies
An engineering society is a professional organization for engineers of various disciplines. Some are umbrella type organizations which accept many different disciplines, while others are discipline-specific. Many award professional designations, s ...
donated a carillon to the Academic libraries
An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...
in memory of the American engineers who died in the war. It consisted of 48 bells, one for each U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
at the time (Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
and Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
were U.S. territories
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sover ...
). The carillon was completed and dedicated on 4 July 1928. It narrowly survived destruction in the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but fell into disrepair. American carillonneur
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
Margo Halsted led a major restoration and expansion to 63 bells, which was realized in 1983.
* On 22 November 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres (french: Première Bataille des Flandres; german: Erste Flandernschlacht – was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. Th ...
, the town's Cloth Hall
A cloth hall or linen hall (german: Gewandhaus; pl, Sukiennice; french: Halle aux draps; nl, Lakenhal) is a historic building located in the centre of the main marketplace of a European town. Cloth halls were built from medieval times into the 18 ...
came under heavy artillery fire and was destroyed, including its two carillons. In 1934, one year into the tower's meticulous reconstruction, bellfounder
Bellfounding is the casting and tuning of large bronze bells in a foundry for use such as in churches, clock towers and public buildings, either to signify the time or an event, or as a musical carillon or chime. Large bells are made by casting ...
Marcel Michiels Jr. delivered a new, 49-bell carillon. Due to its unsatisfactory sound, it was retuned in 1963 by Petit & Fritsen
Royal Bellfounders Petit & Fritsen, located in Aarle-Rixtel, the Netherlands, is a former foundry, one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the Netherlands, with the foundry dating back to 1660.
Petit & Fritsen was a foundry that cast bells f ...
. Because the tower houses the In Flanders Fields Museum
The In Flanders Fields Museum is a museum in Ypres (Ieper), Belgium, dedicated to the study of the First World War. It occupies the second floor of the Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) on the market square in the city centre. The building was largely dest ...
since 1988, the carillon often supplements its music with bagpipes
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...
and trumpets.
* On 19 August 2018, the in Aarschot
Aarschot () is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Aarschot proper and the towns of Gelrode, Langdorp and Rillaar. On January 1, 2019, Aarschot had a total popul ...
inaugurated , one bell for each of the countries that had troops in Flanders during the First World War. Parts of old artillery shell
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage ...
s were used in the carillon's bell bronze
Bell metal or bell bronze is an alloy used for making bells and related instruments, such as cymbals. It is a form of bronze with a higher tin content, usually in approximately a 4:1 ratio of copper to tin (typically, 78% copper, 22% tin by ma ...
to symbolize reconciliation. The carillon was suggested by a church official, who remarked at city's lack of carillon compared to others in Flanders.
* During the Burning of Leuven, the city's carillon in St. Peter's Church was destroyed. The original site of this instrument, from 1730 to 1811, was in Park Abbey
Park Abbey ( nl, Abdij van Park; also Parc Abbey) is a Premonstratensian abbey in Belgium, at Heverlee just south of Leuven, in Flemish Brabant.
The '' Annales Parchenses'' were written here in the 12th century.
History
The abbey was founded in ...
. In 2012, the cities of Leuven
Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...
and Neuss
Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...
, the latter from which most of the troops that destroyed Leuven came, began constructing a carillon, a replica of the original, for Park Abbey's empty tower. It was inaugurated on 11 November 2018, one century after the armistice.
Further reading
Websites
* France
French Website
enables searches to be made for French soldiers killed in 1914–1918.
* Australi
A website for matters concerning the Australian Imperial Force.
* Canad
has facilities to search for Canadian service records of the 1914–1918 war.
* German
German Website
details of German cemeteries
Books
* Arthur, M. "Forgotten Voices of the Great War"
* Buffetaut, Y. "Ypres 22 avril 1915"
* Cave, N. "Hill 60 Ypres"
* Cooksey, J. "Images of War. Flanders-1915"
* Farrar-Hockley, A."Death of An Army"
* Gliddon, G. "VCs of the First World War 1914"
* Holmes, R. "Army Battlefield Guide. Belgium and Northern France"
* Holt, T. and V. "Major and Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient"
* "Illustrated Michelin Guides to the Battlefields (1914–1918) Ypres and The Battles of Ypres"
* Lomas, D. "First Ypres 1914 The Graveyard of the Old Contemptibles"
* MacDonald, L. "1915. The Death of Innocence"
* Neillands, R. "The Old Contemptibles. The British Expeditionary Force 1914"
* Royon, G. "Massacre of the Innocents The Crofton Diaries Ypres 1914–1915"
See also
* Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial
Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War I cemetery in the city of Waregem, Belgium. Originally a temporary battlefield burial ground, Flanders Field American Cemetery later became the only permanent American World War I ceme ...
* List of World War I Memorials and Cemeteries in Alsace
* List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in Artois
This is a List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in Pas-de-Calais, within the historic County of Artois and present day Pas-de-Calais Department of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, located in northeastern France. World War I battles in this ...
*
* List of World War I Memorials and Cemeteries in Lorraine
*
* List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in the Somme
This article lists the memorials and cemeteries around the area of the river Somme.
Memorial to the Liverpool and Manchester Pals at Montauban
7th Yorkshire Regiment Memorial at Fricourt
Statue of Marshal Foch at Bouchavesnes
Memorial to ...
* List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in Verdun
This is a List of World War I cemeteries and memorials in Verdun.
Verdun saw significant loss of life in several battles for the town during the First World War, particularly the Battle of Verdun. Cemeteries and memorials have been set up for bot ...
References
{{World War I
*Flanders
*Flanders
*Flanders
*
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
Memorials and Cemeteries in Flanders
Memorials and Cemeteries in Flanders