Belgian city, also known as Ypres, was almost completely flattened during first World War
The Belgian city of Ieper was almost completely flattened during the first World War. By the winter of 1918, a person on a horse could look right across the city, such was the devastation wrought by four years of brutal fighting.
Ieper’s pre-war population stood at around 17,000. As the fighting intensified from November 1914, those who could leave did so, fleeing initially to the nearby towns of Poperinge, Kortrijk and Ostend. Those who remained, sheltered in their cellars or in the bunkers of the city’s ramparts. The last remaining inhabitants were evacuated in May 1915.
A collection of wooden huts on the Minneplein, a large field just outside the city walls, provided temporary accommodation for those who were building their own homes in the city. These huts, which numbered in the hundreds, also provided provisional lodgings for the town hall, hotel, post office, cafes, St Martin’s Church, police force and two schools.
While the British did not have their way in persuading the local authorities to leave the city as a ruin, they were allocated space to construct a memorial to fallen British soldiers. The Menin Gate , which is a memorial to the missing, was inaugurated in July 1927. The party numbered 45 altogether and they were accommodated in a military barracks in Ieper. They laid a wreath at the Menin Gate and the boys brought an Irish blackthorn stick with them to present to the burgomaster as a token of their appreciation for his hospitality.
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