List of World War I memorials and cemeteries in Flanders

This list of World War I memorials and cemeteries in Flanders describes some of the war cemeteries and memorials erected in Flanders to mark events there during World War I.

Following various declarations of war, the German Army opened hostilities by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium and at the same time gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the German advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne and following the race to the sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war. It was what was to be the Western Front.

Between 1915 and 1917, there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counterattacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun with a combined 700,000 dead, the Battle of the Somme with more than a million casualties, and the Battle of Passchendaele, part of "Third Ypres", with roughly 600,000 casualties.

In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new military technology, including poison gas, aircraft and tanks. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored. The German Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. Using the recently-introduced infiltration tactics, the German armies advanced nearly 60 miles (97 kilometres) to the west, which marked the deepest advance by either side since 1914 and very nearly succeeded in forcing a breakthrough.

In spite of the generally stagnant nature of this front, in was in this theatre that the final breakthrough was to occur. The inexorable advance of the Allied armies during the second half of 1918 persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable, and the government was forced to sue for conditions of an armistice. The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

This listing concerns that part of the Western Front located in Belgian Flanders, namely the Yser river region and the Ypres Salient.

The Yser Region
By the end of 1914 the trenches of 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 run, and this is a record of some of these memorials in the Flanders area : the list is by no means a definitive one.

The Battle of the Yser
After the Battle of the Marne, which halted the German Army’s advance as had been defined and set out in their "Von Schlieffen" plan, there followed what some historians have called the "Race to the Sea". What in fact happened, once the Germans had retreated from the Marne and dug in north of the Aisne, was that the opposing sides tried to take each other's flank with each outflanking movement being parried so that eventually the North Sea Coast was reached without either side achieving a breakthrough although many battles and skirmishes were fought along the way.

It was in the area north of the Yser that the Germans saw their last chance of a breakthrough. If they could break through the Allied Army’s left flank in that region they had the opportunity to take Dunkirk and then Calais and so cut off the Allies’ supplies from these two ports, enabling them to then deliver a lethal if not terminal blow on the French Army and her British and Belgian Allies.

On 9 October 1914, Antwerp had fallen to the Germans after use by them of the intensive siege artillery that had proved so successful at Liege, Namur and Mauberge. Brussels had already been evacuated as had Zeebrugge and Ostend. The Belgian Army retreated westwards assisted by the French Marine Brigade and the British 7th Division (British troops had been sent over in September to assist in the defence of Antwerp). By 14 October most of Belgium was in German hands. The Belgians and their allies had reached the river Yser, the last natural border on Flemish soil, a river which cuts across the Polder plains through Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort before flowing into the North Sea at Nieuwpoort-Bains.

For several days the Belgian Army, still supported by the Brigade of French Marines, fought heroically using the Yser's embankment and the embankment of the Nieuwpoort to Diksmuide railway as their line of defence. The Yser had been canalized many years earlier and for the canal's last 65 kilometres it was embanked with earthworks. The Germans attacked Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide and on the night of 21 October 1914, after failing to break either Nieuwpoort or Diksmuide, the German Army attacked the centre of the line around Tervaete. After several setbacks, the Belgians showed tremendous resilience and the line was still held on 23 October 1914.

On 25 October 1914, the line held firm but the situation was becoming desperate and at this point the Belgians made the brave decision to open the sluices and effectively flood the area. Belgium chose "the application of one of the most ancient of military stratagems: inundation-defence by flooding" Nieuwpoort was where the complex control of the river, the tides and the levels of nearby canals and effectively the drainage of the Polder Plain was controlled. Many were involved in the operation of opening the sluice gates to effect this inundation but it was Lieutenant-Colonel Nuyten of the Belgian Army and the civilian Hendrik Geereart, a retired waterman, who were to play the major roles. They soon enlisted the help of Karel Cogge, an old-lock keeper. The operation to effect the maximum possible flooding commenced on 25 October 1914.

Whilst fighting continued the water levels gradually rose and by 31 October the German Army, finding themselves being swallowed up by a huge swamp, abandoned the idea of crossing the Yser north of Diksmuide, and, still having Calais as their objective, they moved to the Diksmuide-Ypres area and threw everything at Diksmuide which was eventually taken. However the German Army had still not crossed the Yser and now the German High Command looked at the area around Ypres and the idea of breaking through to Calais and the Channel Ports from there. "For the next four years the great man-made sea, 13 kilometers long and 6 kilometres wide (8 miles long and 3 wide), was kept in place, and never again were the Germans to set foot west of the railway."

For the whole period of the war the Belgian Army held the flooded plain and dunes area and Nieuwpoort were held by the French until June 1917 when Rawlinson’s British 4th Army attacked along the coast supported by fire from British warships. For the final part of the war the Belgians took responsibility for the entire Yser sector.

On 28 September 1918, the so called "Liberty" Offensive in Flanders began and by 15 October 1918 the Belgians had crossed the Yser and pursuing the retreating Germans they were in Ostende by 17 October 1918. The Germans debunked from Bruges and the Belgians retook Zebrugge. The Armistice on 11 November 1918 ended the fighting along the entire Western Front.

"Inundation, therefore, proved to be the key to the coastal sector. By a combination of this most ancient of strategies, local knowledge, and tenacious defence early in the war, the Germans had been forced to shift their attentions inland- to the dry plains and ridges of French and Belgian Flanders. And ultimately to Ypres. In a way, it was the Nieuwpoort inundations which created the Western Front".

There are many monuments and memorials in this sector which celebrate the Battle of the Yser and other events. These include-

Belgian War Memorials- civil and parochial
Most villages and towns in West Flanders have their own war memorials either civil or parochial. These can be traced in this website

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.

Some recommended websites

 * France- French Website, enables searches to be made for French soldiers killed in 1914-1918.
 * Australia-Australian Website, A website for matters concerning the Australian Imperial Force.
 * Canada-Canadian website, has facilities to search for Canadian service records of the 1914-1918 war.
 * Germany-German Website, details of German cemeteries

Some recommended reading

 * M.Arthur. "Forgotten Voices of the Great War" ISBN 0091 88209-5
 * J.Cooksey. "Images of War. Flanders-1915" ISBN 1-84415-356-8
 * L.MacDonald. "1915.The Death of Innocence" ISBN 0-7472-7834-2
 * N.Cave. "Hill 60 Ypres" ISBN 0-85052-559-4
 * Y.Buffetaut. "Ypres 22 avril 1915" ISBN 2-84673-020-2
 * G.Gliddon. "VCs of the First World War 1914" ISBN 1-84015-006-8
 * R.Holmes. "Army Battlefield Guide. Belgium and Northern France" ISBN 0-11-772762-8
 * "Illustrated Michelin Guides to the Battlefields (1914-1918) Ypres and The Battles of Ypres" ISBN 0 904775 24 0
 * R Neillands "The Old Contemptibles. The British Expeditionary Force 1914" ISBN 0-7195-5646-5
 * A.Farrar-Hockley "Death of An Army" ISBN 1-85326-698-1
 * G.Royon "Massacre of the Innocents The Crofton Diaries Ypres 1914-1915" ISBN 0-7509-3739-4
 * D.Lomas "First Ypres 1914 The Graveyard of the Old Contemptibles" ISBN 1-85532-573-4