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Welcome to the Ypres Salient
This site presents the story of the First World War in the West Flanders region. The various categories provide a wealth of information about a range of subjects.
The Roll of Honour category is where you will find the details of all the men from Falkirk District who are buried or commemorated in the Immortal Salient.
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Next of Kin
Next of Kin, Accounting for the dead, The army, despite the accusations of how good or bad they were at fighting, knew how to count and they had created returns and lists for everything. In addition, roll calls were regularly held as the men had to be paid, fed, equipped, and sent on leave. One of the critical parts of the accounting process was that of recording the dead, simply because the army did not like paying for soldiers who no longer had a usefulness and the army lik
Sep 2014 min read
Walking the Ypres Salient - A Guide to the Eleven Cemeteries west of Vlamertinghe
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) battlefields and is a circular route that takes in all eleven cemeteries located in and to the west of Vlamertinghe of the Ieper (Ypres) Salient World War I. It is designed for free independent historians like myself, or enthusiasts of the Ieper (Ypres Salient) who like to explore and are not interested in being led to the usual suspects of an organised tour.
Jun 52 min read
It was a regular Valley of Death – The action at Wytschaete of 14 December 1914
Imagine sending a battalion alone to attack a strongly wired position up a hill and over mud a foot deep, under frontal and enfilade fire....
Feb 87 min read
Walking the Ypres Salient - Five Cemeteries Walk, South of Ploegsteert
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) battlefields and is a circular route that takes in all five cemeteries located on the southern tip of the Ieper (Ypres) Salient World War I sites south of Ploegsteert. The WW1 battlefield here saw some of the early fighting of 1914 and 1915, including the Christmas Truce of 1914. This Ypres battlefields walk will take a full day to complete however, if you are pressed for time you may wish to use your car or your bike
Jan 93 min read
A Glimpse of Wartime Reninghelst
The area around Reninghelst was heavily populated with gun pits, camps, Field Ambulances,
Nov 30, 202416 min read
The Ypres Salient in Ten Themes
The ten themes have been designed to be read as bite size pieces and cover Death, Wounded, Last Leave, Trench Life, Behind the Lines....
Sep 23, 20244 min read
The Twelve Poets of the Ypres Salient
Lt Col John Ebenezer Stewart, listed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, was glad of the MC he had won, if only to prove that ‘fellows who write verse are not softies.’
Apr 8, 20244 min read
Names That Must Not Wither
This video features a selection of men from Falkirk in the A to L category
Feb 20, 20241 min read
As Dim As A TOC-H Lamp
The phrase ‘As dim as a Toc-H lamp’ you would be forgiven if, like many, you thought that this was a derogatory phrase describing someone as dim witted. The Secretary of the Leicester Toc-H said: ‘Our lamps may have a small flame, but our spirit is bright as ever… Actually, the saying ‘As dim as a TOC-H lamp’ is quite accurate. A lamp is our symbol. We always have one lit at our meetings. But those old-fashioned oil and wick lamps only have a small flame.’
Feb 18, 202415 min read
Prisoners of War: The Forgotten Heroes
It is estimated that between 7 to 9 million prisoners of war were taken in the First World War. In ‘Black Bread and Barbed Wire,’ Michael Moynihan puts the British Prisoners of War at 6,482 officers and 163,907 other ranks. The official British statistics for all theatres including all services put the numbers at 192,848.
The Falkirk District roll of PoWs can be found in the Falkirk Herald of December 1918. By December 1916, there were 81 PoWs plus three internees from Falk
Feb 6, 202418 min read
The Love of a Son: Käthe Kollwitz & Vladslo
Vladslo German Military Cemetery. Authors image The physical act of touching a war memorial, touching the name of the relative, for some...
Nov 28, 202317 min read
Art, the Artists and the Ypres Salient
IWM Art.IWM REPRO 000684 13 Muirhead Bone Ruins of Ypres-Cloth Hall in the Distance The First World War has an enduring resonance within...
Nov 5, 202318 min read
Ypres Salient Airmen
Over the many years I have visited the Ypres Salient and the many cemeteries, I have taken note of the graves of the men from the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and after 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF), and also those of the German Army Air Service. The air war between 1914 to 1918 claimed eight thousand casualties on the Allied side either shot down and killed, taken prisoner, or wounded in action.
Oct 28, 20233 min read
Paths of Glory: Ypres Salient
One of the more enduring popular beliefs is that as the conditions on the Western Front were so grim, in both bottomless mud and the endless artillery barrages, that all the men simply disappeared. They were absorbed into the morass and been consumed by the man-eating monster. This idea is prevalent in the poetry and literature that the war somehow needed to be fed with the lives of the poor bloody infantry. The idea that a man or men could simply just disappear and that the
Sep 24, 202316 min read
SEX AND TOMMY: IN FLANDERS FIELDS
Sex and war is not a subject that readily springs to mind when discussing the First World War. It is an uncomfortable subject for many and is on the margins of British history of the First World War. What is of surprise is not that there was sexual activity along the Western Front, but that it has not been explored in any real detail.
Jun 24, 202322 min read
The Mine Craters of Messines Ridge, Cratering the Ridge
Messines is to the tunneller what Waterloo was to Wellington. Never in the history of British warfare has a miner played such a great and vital part in a battle. The tunnelling and mining operation at Messines were a staggering feat of engineering by the Tunnelling Companies. Today, we accept that twenty five charges had been placed - La Petite Douve was lost to countermining and 'C' gallery at Peckham to geology - and many more were either completed or close to being complet
Apr 9, 202328 min read
PART THREE: British Shelters, Dugouts & Bunkers
The men who occupied the front-line trenches required to have shelter from the weather, shell splinters, direct hits from small and large calibre shells. In the early years of the war the troops dug holes in the side of the trenches and covered the entrance with a ground sheet. From 1915, British trench shelters were mainly constructed with an inner lining of prefabricated corrugated steel known as elephant iron, it was also known as tin or steel, and this gave the name to th
Jan 3, 20234 min read
PART TWO: German Shelters, Dugouts and Bunkers
The number of concrete bunkers built by the Germans in the Salient was staggering. Their intense building programme from late 1916 to mid-1917 saw 1,773 in the northern area, 500 in the central area, 118 in the southern area, and 385 in what was known as the Wytschaete Salient. In the area between the Ypres-Roulers Railway and Bixschoete there were 757 concrete bunkers in the first two front lines, and a further 245 in the third line.
Dec 5, 202214 min read
PART ONE: Development of Shelters, Dugouts and Bunkers in the Ypres Salient
The term ‘bunker’ a commonly used word today and used to describe the storage place for fuel or coal, was not used by either side in the First World War. The word appears to have originated with the Germans who began to use it to describe their constructions in the 1930s. The word ‘pillbox’ was first used in the war diary of the 63rd Field Company RE, which was attached to the 9th (Scottish) Division, when they used the term Pillar Box in their work schedule for March 1916 wh
Dec 4, 202213 min read
Shot at Dawn
In the First World War between 4 August 1914 and 31 March 1920, 3,080 men had been sentenced to death under the British Army Act, with 302, which was one in ten of those condemned to death at Military court martials, executed for offences under the British Army Act while on active service on the Western Front. 76 men who were executed in the Ypres Salient and are buried or commemorated in twenty eight cemeteries and memorials across the Ypres Salient.
Apr 26, 20226 min read
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