British: Lock 8

This British shelter is well hidden as it is dug into the bank of the embankment were the road N365 crosses the canal just south of Lankhof Farm. It is hidden by bramble bushes, long grass, and other vegetation.

IWM Image

Sapper Jack Martin recalls in his diary: 'After breakfast I moved up with the Advance Party under Cpl Hamilton to Spoil Bank on the Ypres-Comines Canal.... A few yards in front of us is a lock which holds the water back so that only a little stream is leaking out and trickling along the bed...The saps are lit by electric light and are kept in repair by a permanent staff of Canadian Tunnellers. The general level of the floor of the galleries is practically the same as the towpath, so we have the advantage of twenty to thirty feet above us without the disadvantage of a long steep flight of steps.' (From The Secret Great War Diary of Jack Martin)

Trench Map

The Australian 12th Infantry Brigade held this area in early 1918 and it was the scene of heavy fighting during the German spring offensive of 1918 with the remnants of the 16th and 17th Battalions, Manchester Regiment, holding the line here and enduring heavy

German shelling for three days. The remnants, numbering three officers and twelve men, withdrew on the morning of the 28 April, and joined the Leicester north of the canal.