Great War sites in 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.

The Norbertines of Tongerlo Abbey erected a moated castle on the site where noble lords and ladies had resided since 1271.

In Antwerp, dozens of kilometres of trenches, parapets and ramparts lie hidden under a thick crust of branches and leaves.

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.

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.

During the First Battle of Ypres, on 1 November 1914 to be precise, Bavarian troops succeeded in capturing the West Flanders village of Wijtschate and the Croonaert Forest.

The Battle of the Polygoon Forest took place in Zonnebeke from September 26 to 27, 1917. Australian and New Zealand soldiers eliminated the German bunkers and fortifications one by one.