2017 Battlefield Tour Page 27

Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62) Trench System and Museum It was during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914 that the British Army used the cover of a large wood south of the Ypres - Menin road near Hooge for tending to their casualties. At that time the wood was to the west of and behind the British fighting line. It is believed to have been given the name Sanctuary Wood on the 1914-1918 British Army Trench Maps, for that very reason; it was providing a place of sanctuary to the wounded. By mid-November 1914 the First Battle of Ypres drew to a close and the British and German front line trenches became static in the eastern part of Sanctuary Wood. Frontline and support trenches for both the German and the British Armies remained in and around the wood until July 1917 when the British launched an offensive on the German lines for the Third Battle of Ypres (known as the Battle of Passchendaele) on 31 July 1917. The trenches in the wood had names such as Lovers Walk, Artillery Place and Warrington Ave. In 1918 the German Army pushed the Allied Armies back towards Ypres again and the two front lines were located to the west of Sanctuary Wood close to Ypres. This meant that the Sanctuary Wood area was now east of and behind the German front line. The movement of front lines backwards and forwards over the same ground is typical of the WWI fighting during the four years of war in the Ypres Salient. This accounts for the absolute destruction of parts of the landscape over and over, and the reason why the bodies of so many thousands of soldiers from all sides have never been found.

After the First World War, a farmer returned to reclaim his land in and around what was left of the wood he had left in 1914. A section of the original wood and the trenches in it were cleared of debris and casualties but generally, the farmer left a section of a British trench system as he found it…… Footnote; If you do visit here and I well recommend you do, should it be inclement weather make sure you have sturdy footwear conditions will be very muddy.