War and industrial relics in West Flanders

On the night of 10 May 1918, the British army attempted to block the Ostend harbour channel so that German submarines could no longer sail out.

A monumental memorial was erected in 1938 on the bank of the Yser in Nieuwpoort in honour of Belgian King Albert I.

The ring road R8 around the Belgian town of Kortrijk has been awaiting completion for decades. Construction of this ring road around the city began more than 50 years ago, in 1973. 

The Zwin region between Belgium and the Netherlands has had an eventful military past as a natural border since the Hundred Years' War broke loose. Even during World War I, the border region came back into focus.

World War I drove soldiers from all over the world to the battlefield in West Flanders. More than a hundred thousand Senegalese tirailleurs were also called up.

Hikers in a new nature reserve in West Flanders were surprised to find the carcass of a Volkswagen van among the greenery. The van was reportedly once parked there as a hunting cabin.

The Belgian army erected an observation post on the remains of the presbytery of St Catherine's Chapel in Pervijze during World War I. 

Not much remains of Ramskapelle's former railway station today, as it was shot to pieces during the Battle of the Yser. The station was, therefore, right on the front line along the Yser.

Although today, Vloethemveld is a 350-hectare nature reserve a stone's throw from Bruges, it was once home to a Belgian army ammunition depot and the nature area also hides other military secrets.

During the final months of World War I, the British Army Troop Company Royal Engineers erected a concrete bridge over the Kemmelbeek near Ypres.