Monuments on the Ypres Salient, Belgium
There are many monuments and memorials in and around Ieper (Ypres). They range in size from official monuments commemorating thousands of people missing in action and who have no known grave to private memorials dedicated to individuals or military units. Some are simply places or scars on the landscape from the battles which have been preserved on the old battlefields. Some have been put up to mark a particular event. This page lists some of the more well known monuments in the Ypres Salient.
Memorials to the Missing of WW1
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In the Ypres Salient battlefields there are approximately 90,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers whose remains cannot be identified for burial in a grave marked with their name. Similarly, there are also believed to be about 90,000 German soldiers whose unidentified remains have also never been found in Flanders. There were many French soldiers found on the battlefields whose remains could not be identified.
For the 90,000 missing British Forces there are four memorials in the Ypres Salient battlefields which cover the whole period of the First World War, except the months of August and September 1914:
- Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing
- Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial
- Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing
- New Zealand Memorial (Tyne Cot Cemetery)
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing south of Messines is technically outside the sector known as the Ypres Salient, and commemorates the missing of the Lys battlefield sector. Its proximity to Ypres means that many visitors to the Ypres Salient include it in a visit to the area.
Names of missing German soldiers are inscribed on oak panels and bronze tablets at Langemark German cemetery and French soldiers are commemorated in ossuaries.
Monuments and Memorials to Individuals and Military Units
There are numerous monuments in the Ypres Salient commemorating the action of individuals or a military unit. In most cases these are privately funded by individuals in memory of a relative. With regard to the commemorations by military units, many of these memorials were put up by regiments and divisions to commemorate particular actions in which the unit took part.
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Breton Memorial to the French 87th and 45th Divisions, April 1915
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The monument is situated behind the French front line held by the 87th Territorial Division and 45th Algerian Division in April 1915. It is situated at the Carrefour de la Rose (known as Rose Crossroads on British Army trench maps) on the Langemarck-Boezinge road, about 1 kilometre west of Pilkem. The memorial commemorates French troops killed and wounded in the German gas cloud attack on 22nd April 1915 and those who fought in the Second Battle of Ypres.
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Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial, Zonnebeke
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A memorial in Buttes New British Cemetery in Polygon Wood commemorates 378 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who have no known grave. They died in Polygon Wood and in the vicinity of the wood between the dates of September 1917 and May 1918.
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Cross of Reconciliation
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The Cross of Reconciliation is an aluminium cross which is a memorial to French troops gassed by the German chlorine gas cloud of 22nd April 1915. The original memorial was destroyed during the German occupation of the area in the Second World War.
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Francis Ledwidge Memorial
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Francis Ledwidge was a poet. He enlisted in October 1914 and served in Gallipoli in the April 1915 campaign.
Francis Ledwidge Memorial -
Grenadiers Memorial, Belgian Army, 22nd April 1915
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This is a memorial to the Belgian Grenadiers. This regiment of the Belgian Army was holding the line on the west bank of the Ypres-Yser canal when there was a large-scale German attack following a cloud of poisonous gas on 22nd April 1915. Although the gas did not affect the Belgian troops very badly here they were greatly outnumbered. The Grenadier Regiment held its position and the Allied line here held firm.
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Georges Guynemer Memorial, Poelkappelle
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At a road junction in Poelkappelle there is a memorial to the French ace pilot Georges Guynemer. He was killed in combat on 11th September 1917. His plane crashed over the German lines in the Passchendaele sector. The Germans reported that they recovered his body but it and his aircraft were very soon after destroyed by artillery shelling. The stork was an emblem for French aviation squadrons, with its wings shown in different positions for each particular squadron. This memorial shows Guynemer's stork emblem flying towards the German positions, believed to be the direction he was last seen flying in by his comrades.
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Hill 60
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The WW1 battle area known as Hill 60 was so called on British military maps because the contoured height of the ground was marked at 60 metres above sea level.
Hill 60 -
Island of Ireland Peace Park
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The memorial site is dedicated to the soldiers of Ireland, of all political and religious beliefs, who died, were wounded or missing in the Great War of 1914-1918. Irish men and women served with the Armies of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.
Island of Ireland Peace Park -
Langemark German Memorial to the Missing
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Many individual German graves and burial sites were destroyed during the battes of 1917 and 1918 in the Ypres Salient. Many thousands of German soldiers simply disappeared into the fields of Flanders without a trace. Commemorative lists of names of the unidentified burials or missing German soldiers can be found at the German cemetery in Langemark.
Langemark German Military Cemetery -
Mémorial aux Soldats Français 1914-1918
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The French memorial is located close to the summit of the Kemmelberg (Mont Kemmel). It commemorates the French units engaged in combat in the battles for Mont Kemmel between 15th to 30th April 1918.
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Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing
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The Menin Gate memorial contains the names of 54,896 officers and men from the British and Commonwealth Forces who fell before midnight on 16th August 1917 and who have no known grave in the Ypres Salient.
Menin Gate Memorial Daily Sounding of the Last Post -
Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial, Messines
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The Messines Ridge Memorial commemorates more than 800 men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who died fighting in the Messines sector in 1917 and 1918 and have no known grave.
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New Zealand Memorial, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele
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The memorial commemorates more than 1,200 officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who died fighting in the Passchendaele sector in October 1917 and who have no known grave.
Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing -
Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing
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Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing. 
The memorial serves the area south of the Ypres Salient from a line Caestre- Dranoutre-Warneton in the north to a line Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes in the south of the sector. The sector includes the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul, Armentières, the Forest of Nieppe and Ploegsteert Wood. Originally the idea was to place the memorial in Lille. The 11,391 casualties who are commemorated on the memorial died within this sector.
Although not technically located within the sector of the Ypres Salient, this memorial is usually included in a visitor's tour of the Salient.
Monthly Sounding of the Last Post -
Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater Memorial — The Pool of Peace
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The Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater, also known as Lone Tree Crater, is the site of the largest of 19 mines blown by the British Army in the early hours of the morning of 7th June 1917. This signalled the launch of the Battle of Messines.
Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater -
Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing
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The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing commemorates 34,887 names of men from the United Kingdom and New Zealand Forces who died from the date of 16th August 1917 and who have no known grave.
Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing -
United States Memorial to 27th and 30th Divisions
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The 27th and 30th Divisions in the United States Army fought near Wytschaete with the British Army from 18th August and 4th September 1918.
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Vancouver Corner Canadian Memorial
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The memorial commemorates the Canadian 1st Division in action on 22nd to 24th April 1915.
Canadian Memorial at Vancouver Corner
Related Links
War Graves on the Western Front
An article providing background to the burial of military dead from the 1914-1918 war and why so many of the casualties are still recorded as “Missing”:
War Graves for WW1 Dead on The Western FrontCemeteries in the Ypres Salient
There are over 100 military cemeteries in the Ypres Salient where many thousands of Allied and German servicemen are buried. Visitors to the cemeteries will often find graves for which the remains of a casualty are unidentified. Although the casualty cannot be identified at his place of burial, there will likely be a place of commemoration on a special memorial in a cemetery or on one of the official memorials to the missing.
Cemeteries in the Ypres Salient