Belgium - Western Front

A jam packed day lay ahead as we realise we wanted to try to see the entire Flanders region of the Front in one day! 

We started by exploring the Battlefields and Cemeteries of Messines and Ploeg Steert Wood. The Battle of Messines was on June 7, 1917 and its goal was to capture the Messines Ridge. The cemeteries included Mud Corner and Toronto Ave Cemetery. Mud Corner is truly an ANZAC cemetery with all but one grave belonging to Australian’s and New Zealander’s, and Toronto Ave is the only all Australian cemetery in Belgium.

We also visited the assumed site of the “Christmas Truce”. It is known that the truce took place but it is not known exactly what happened. According to legend on Xmas Day 1914 British and German’s in this sector of the line held an informal temporary truce. They met each other in ‘No-mans Land’ and exchanged gifts (cigarettes, different foods and rations), and family stories, it is thought that they may have even had a football match.

Our next stop was Tyn Cot Cemetery. Tyn Cot is the world’s largest Commonwealth military cemetery holding 11,953 graves. There are more Australians buried here than in any other cemetery of the first world war; 1368, of which 791 are unidentified. 2 of the Australian graves here are of 2 of our Victoria Cross medal winners, Sgt Lewis McGee, and Cpt Clarence Jeffries.

Following the cemetery we toured the battlefields of Broodseinde Ridge and Passchendale and visited the sites where the 2 VC’s mentioned above were won. We also stopped at the Zoonebeke Chateau Museum which has a recreated Britich Dugout in its cellars and held lots memorabilia form the War.

Our next exploration was of Polygon Wood. The Australian 4th and 5th Divisions attacked Polygon Wood along a 2000m Front on the morning of the 26th September 1917. They had to advance through the heart of the wood overcoming dozens of pillboxes and machine gun emplacements before tackling the Buttes itself. The Buttes, a large mound of dirt originally the backdrop of a rifle range, had been turned by the Germans into a fortress. It had many machine guns, dugouts, and tunnels, and was surrounded by barbed wire entanglements. The Buttes is now the site of the 5th Division Memorial and overlooks The Buttes New British Cemetery where there are 564 Australians, 407 of which are unidentified due to the terrible fighting in this area. After visiting the cemetery we walked through Polygon Wood itself leaving the track in places to find pillboxes that still remain. This was very cool to see!

On our way back to our campsite we visited the Australian Tunnellers Memorial at ‘Hill 60’. The Memorial has bullet holes in it from WW2. Hill 60 was a prized piece of land and changed hands several times. When the fighting became too hot on top of the hill both Armies resorted to an underground war and began tunnelling under the earth. They would tunnel under enemy trenches and detonate mines. Hill 60 was never restored after the war and the battle scars of the fighting are still evident today.

Our tour of the Western Front was an enlightening and emotional journey which heightened our sense of pride in our soldiers and our country. Our only words that we think sum it up are: “THANK YOU!”