Surgery and Treatment on the Western Front

In complete contrast to Tyne Cot, this dark and foreboding place is the only German cemetery in the Salient, with the remains of over 44,000 soldiers including a mass grave of 25,000 men.

This cemetery contains the notable graves of 15-year old Pte. Joe Strudwick and Pte. Thomas Barratt V.C. Outside the cemetery is the Albertina Memorial to the poet John McCrae. He is reputed to have written what is perhaps the war’s best known poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, in a bunker dressing station here.

This fascinating museum, situated in the grounds of Zonnebeke chateau, gives an overview of the Battle of Ypres, with a focus on Passchendaele 1917, by means of authentic photographic material, historical artefacts and several life-like dioramas.

Visitors can walk through a German trench and descend into a unique 6 metre deep British dugout with communication and dressing posts, headquarters and accommodation. The museum also has reconstructed German and British trench systems.

More details

Although just 60 metres above sea level at the northern end of the Messines Ridge, Hill 60 was a crucial, strategic vantage point from where the Germans could look down on Ypres.

More details

Lying just a few miles west of Ieper town, Brandhoek was  an area just out of range of enemy fire, making it an ideal spot for a field dressing station and cemetery. The site is the final resting place of Captain Noel Chavasse VC, a British doctor on the front line who continued to tend to wounded in spite of his own injuries.

Situated on the outskirts of Arras, the memorial wall carries the names of 36,000 servicemen with no known grave who died in battles in the Arras sector. The enclosed Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery contains 2,700 graves.

More details with CWGC

A memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. The tower is located very near to the famous Schwaben Redoubt which the Division attacked on 1st July 1916. The front lines were at the edge of Thiepval Wood which lies to the south-west of the road between the Thiepval memorial and the Ulster Tower. Guided tours of nearby trenches are available (advance booking essential).

More details at Somme Tourisme

This impressive crater is situated east of the village of La Boiselle. Approximately 90 metres in diameter and 20 metres deep, it was created by a mine detonated on 1st July 1916. This is now a permanent memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives on the first day of the Battle of The Somme.

More details

The site of the memorial to the dead of the Tank Corps of 1916-1918, and where the first tanks in history saw action.

The world’s largest Commonwealth war cemetery containing the graves of 11,962 men. The rear wall of the cemetery contains the names of almost 35,000 soldiers who have no known grave.

The visitor centre complements your visit to the cemetery.

The small Belgian Hamlet of Lijssenthoek was once home to the largest evacuation hospital in The Ypres Salient. Now the site commemorates 10,000 casualties as the second largest war cemetery in Flanders. The visitor centre contains a fascinating insight into the practises that took place as well as just some of the the stories behind the headstones.

The village of Serre regularly fluctuated between British and German control. The fighting was fierce and a huge number of casualties were taken throughout the war in Serre and the surrounding area.

The 1st of July 1916 saw the first day of The Somme when more than 57,000 British troops lost their lives. In the village of Serre, the 31st Division were mowed down when advancing through the city. Of the 700 that went into the battle, more than 500 were killed in the first 30 minutes of conflict. Many of these men were in “Kitchener’s Army” and enlisted as volunteers to aid in the war effort. Take in the scale of this loss with a 90 minute walk around the battlefields.

The famous British War Memorial, with engraved names of over 54,000 missing British and Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives on the Ypres Salient.

More details

Poperinge remained one of the few unoccupied towns in Flanders and, in 1915, Talbot House was opened as an ‘Everyman’s Club’, where all soldiers were welcomed, regardless of rank.

In 1914, this minute village outside Ypres was the scene of one of the most pivotal conflicts in the First World War. The Worcestershire Regiment charged into enemy fire with bayonets in spite of the British Expeditionary Force's withdrawal. Of the 600 that took part in the charge, one third were killed or wounded in the assault, yet their efforts were ultimately successful in holding Allied lines in Flanders.