Belgian coast

Today, you won't find anything of the Pelican Bridge, a steel bridge kept in place with thousands of rivets across the Veurnevaart in Nieuwpoort.

As if the Atlantic Wall defensive strongholds in the Ostend dunes were not enough, Nazi Germany erected a second line of defence in the hinterland.

The dunes of Raversijde, a seaside resort west of East, are home to not one but two German bunker complexes.

Anyone entering Nieuwpoort via Kinderlaan will come across the remains of the World War II German Widerstandsnest Karthauserdünen.

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 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.

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.

A severe storm lashed Belgium on Monday, 29 November 1897. Over a length of hundreds of metres, the sea dyke was washed away in the sea town Middelkerke. A drinking water reservoir did not remain unscathed either.