5 Days by bike: Day four

What the components of a ‘good’ day out on the battlefields? For me it’s simple, good company and ending the day having learned something new. Today tick’s those boxes and more.

A gentle cycle out of Ypres onto the N8 where we head towards Sanctury Wood museum and the other memorials in the area. It’s a long cycle off the N8 onto Canada Lane, but it’s a quiet road with very little traffic.

After the war, a soldier returned to what was left of his land in and around Sanctury Wood. Most of it was cleared, but fortunately for us, he left a section of a British trench system as he found it. This now lies in the grounds of the museum, along with piles of ordnance and other remnants from the fighting. The ground is very cratered and pockmarked, but the walk around it is probably the most compelling of all the sites in this area.

The museum itself, privately owned by the grandson of the farmer, allegedly possesses the largest number of photographs from WW1, which you can view through special stereoviews, which give some startling and disturbing 3-D images to life.

It’s a small museum but packed with artefacts that will keep anyone interested in history occupied for hours. The sheer volume of items on display, and the authenticity of the grounds is quite overwhelming and for anyone who wanders what war was really like, I think this place gets as close to answering that as possible. A reflective sit down and coffee at the small café is welcome.

Further up Canada Lane is the large Hill 62 Canadian Memorial. From the top, you look down past Sanctury Wood and to the west, lies Ypres.

The memorial is a tribute to the soldiers who fought here over a 11-day period in June 1916 period, keeping the last few square kilometres of Belgian territory in Allied hands but suffering over 8 000 casualties. The territory went back and forth, but ultimately, thanks to the Canadians, stayed in Allied hands until the German Spring offensives in 1918.

We head towards Polygone Woods via the back roads, passing the Black Watch Corner before heading into the woods. You have the option of the hard tack path, or slightly less accommodating paths that take smaller routes into the woods. We do as many as we can, as the woods itself contains a lot of evidence of battle.

The Battle of Polygon Wood took place in the second half of 1917 and formed part of the Third Battle of Ypres, more famously known as Passchendaele. It was a significant battle for Australian forces, hence the memorial to the 5^th Australian Division.

The Wood had been fought over throughout the war, and by the time Passchendaele took place, it had been heavily fortified by the Germans with numerous concrete block houses and thick tangle of wire.

The ‘Butte’, at the centre of the woods had been a firing range before the war but was then fortified by the Germans and was being used as an observation post. Despite heavy resistance, the Australians managed to secure the Butte with support from the Royal Flying Corps.

The memorial overlooks the Buttes New British Cemetery, where more than 650 Australian soldiers are commemorated.

A wonderful, easy ride takes us into Zonnebeke, home of the Passchendaele museum and good options. Most people who take in the Ypres area will have been to the museum here, in its beautiful and calm setting. It’s well worth a visit, but it can get crowded with school and other parties.

We head off towards Tyne Cot along one of the few, well-marked cycle routes.

It is at Tyne Cot that Haig’s Chief of Staff, looking towards Ypres and seeing the endless pools of mud and churned up remains of the land, and the torn and twisted debris of war, is said to have burst into tears and said: "Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?" 

During the Battle of Passchendale, the3rd Australian Division captured a group of German bunkers near Passchendale. One of these bunkers was used as an advanced dressing station and from October 1917 to the end of March 1917, 343 graves were made. The cemetery was retaken by Germany until September 1917 when it was recaptured by the Belgian Army. It was enlarged after the Armistice where remains were brought in from surrounding battlefields.

It stands as a witness to the battle, during which almost 600 000 victims fell in 100 days for a gain of only eight kilometres.

It is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials with 11 961 servicemen buried or commemorated. Ther are also 4 German burials.

The Memorial commemorates nearly 35 000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died in the Ypres Salient after August 1917 and whose graves are not known.

It’s tempting to steer my guests to the graves of the famous, whether sportsmen, entertainers, but here, in this place where there are so many, it seems appropriate to honour them all, equally.

A visit to Tyne Cot doesn’t leave you easily – I still remember my first one there about twelve years ago, and my guests clearly feel the same way, so it seems right that we postpone our two last visits to tomorrow.

We’re ready to call it a day, but the ride has one last surprise: The St Charles-de-Potyze French Cemetery on the N332 back into Ypres.

Its origins lie in the war itself, although it was redeveloped and expanded in the early 20’s when French soldiers were exhumed and brought here.

A Breton Pietà (a Pietà symbolises Mary's profound grief as well as her strength and mercy), is at the front of the site, mourning over the lost dead.

The cemetery is named after a first-aid station near during the First Battle of Ypres in late 1914. The many casualties from that battle were buried here, but in 1915 the front lines changed, and the cemetery found itself in the middle of the firing line. The graves disappeared and by the end of 1917 there was almost no trace of it left. From 1919 it was restored and many graves from surrounding areas relocated to it.

What is interesting about it is the presence of 69 Muslim graves (incorporating Algerian, Moroccan, Senegalese and Tunisian soldiers), with their different shaped headstones on which the arch has a crescent, a 5-pointed star and Arabic text. The crescent represents Islam, the star the 5 pillars of Islam and the text translated reads: ‘This is the grave of the dead’.