Flanders Fields 2 - Pool of Peace, Hill 60 and Polygon Wood

We also visited a place known as the Pool of Peace but which is more correctly the Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater.

It is the largest of the 19 craters left behind after the British mine attack which started the Battle of Messines on the 7th of June 1917. Because of the height of the water table, the crater has filled with water over time and it's now a place of reflection rather than an ugly remnant of the war.  The pool is about 12 metres deep and nearly 130 metres in diameter.

Another stop was Hill 60 and the site of the memorial to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, which is located about 5 kms from Ypres. As you can see from the photo, today it's a place for sheep to roam about in.

Hill 60 was the site of some pretty intensive fighting between the German and British armies between 1915 and 1918. The site is effectively a mass grave for all soldiers who perished below the ground. In November 1916, the Australians took over the mines and tunnels which the British had commenced at Hill 60. The Australians named their shafts and tunnels after Australian cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart and Newcastle.  The movie Beneath Hill 60 showed what the Australian Tunnelling Company achieved here.

The inscription on the memorial says - 'In Memoriam of Officers and Men of the 1st Australian Tunneling Coy who gave their lives in the mining and defensive operations of Hill 60 1915-1918.' The bullet holes in the memorial (which you can see in the photo above) are a consequence of World War II.

This is Polygon Wood. The Battle for Polygon Wood which involved Australia's 5th Division, took place on 26 September 1917.  The wood while completed destroyed, was replanted after the war. Despite this, evidence of the war is still obvious including this concealed German machine gun bunker (see below).

In fact, evidence of the war is everywhere. Farmers continue to find artillery shells, bullets and weapons when plowing their fields. Many shellls are unexploded and pose a serious risk to life and property. We stopped off at a site along the way and this is some of what one farmer had found on his land.  It is estimated that about 100 tons of ordnance are found each year in Belgium.  Each week a specialist army team collect and detonate what has been found.

This is the Butte Cemetery which is located next to Polygon Wood. 

Most of the soldiers buried here died in 1917 but the cemetery wasn't established until after the Armistice. Consequently only about 400 of the burials have been identified and most of the graves are marked as 'A soldier of the Great War - Known Unto God'. Prior to the war, the site used to be a drill ground for the Belgium Army and this inspired the layout of the cemetery with the headstones all facing inwards.