Walking The Ypres Salient

Local departure by coach, then to Ypres for a four-night stay.

Our first walk starts at Artillery Wood where Third Ypres started on 31st July 1917. We look at the Guards attack and also the role of the 38th (Welsh) Division. We then follow the old railway line across the Pilkem Ridge, visiting Ruisseau Farm Cemetery and ending with the story of Harry Patch at Langemarck: The Last Fighting Tommy. After lunch at Hooge we walk the battle here, fought over during Third Ypres. We walk up to the Bellewaarde Ridge and see an area of mine craters opened up to the public as part of the WW1 Centenary and see how the low ridges around Ypres could dominate the ground.

Our third walk starts at Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in the world. Here we look at the fighting in this area in October 1917 when ANZAC troops took the ridge. We then walk down into the valley before Passchendaele village and follow the Canadian assault on the village in October and November 1917 up to the valley to the Canadian Memorial at Crest Farm. We then walk into the village, ending at Passchendaele Church to visit the memorial to the British 66th (West Lancs) Division. After lunch we look at the fighting for Polygon Wood in 1917. Starting at Black Watch Corner we go into the wood, seeing the signs of shell holes and bunkers, and visit the Buttes New British Cemetery and Polygon Wood Cemetery, seeing where Australian soldiers fought in September 1917.

Today we walk the city of Ypres itself seeing some of the key sites connected with the Great War. We walk the old Ramparts, seeing where the Headquarters were and look at how troops got out onto the battlefield, then at the Lille Gate we visit the moving Ramparts Cemetery. We then look at the Cloth Hall area, visit St George’s Memorial Church and end at the Reservoir Cemetery looking at the stories of those who died within Ypres itself. After lunchtime in Ypres with some free-time to visit the In Flanders Fields Museum (at own cost), we look at Behind the Lines at Ypres visiting Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

Return home.