Polygon Wood

Our second tour took us to...

Hill 60

The high ground of Hill 60 was created in the 1850s

by spoil dumped from the cutting for a railway line.

On the west side, a long irregular mound atop the ridge was called

The Caterpillar and on the east side of the cutting,

at the highest point of the ridge,

was the mound known as Hill 60,

about 60 feet (18m) above sea level,

from which First World War artillery observers

had an excellent view of the ground around Zillebeke and Ypres.

Artillery-fire and mine explosions during the war

changed the shape of the hill and flattened it considerably.

Today the peak of Hill 60 is only about 4 metres higher than the vicinity.

The distance between the German and British front line

was alarmingly close...

Andrew stood here and took the photo below,

I'm in the centre of the photo standing on the British Front Line.

Today it is a quiet and tranquil place.

The bodies of many soldiers still lie undiscovered in this area. 
It has never been cleared.

Apparently there is a huge discrepancy between the number

of soldiers known to have died on the battlefields

and the number of bodies recovered.

We walked to the other side of the railway line to the

Caterpillar Crater where 70,000 pounds of explosives

blew a crater with a diameter of 380 ft across the top.

It was detonated by the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company.

This memorial honours their sacrifice.

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Andrew's paternal grandfather served with the Australian Army

for just over 2 years in France and Belgium.

During this time he was gassed and also suffered gunshot wounds.

He was hospitalised on each of these occasions

and then returned to the field of battle.

On September 26^th, at the Battle of Polygon Wood

his actions resulted in him being awarded a

Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Andrew was 17 when his grandfather passed away,

he remembers him well.

The family knew that he had served and been awarded

a medal but he never spoke of his experiences during the war.

It wasn't until after his death that the family discovered

that he had been wounded during the war.

We're beginning to understand why these men

didn't want to talk about what happened here.

Today Polygon Wood and indeed all the battlefields

we've visited seem to be places of peace, tranquility and respect.

Our guide personalised this part of the tour for us and spoke
about Andrew's grandfather.

It was very moving to stand in Polygon Wood
and hear about his part in the battle. 

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Our final stop on the tour Hooge Crater Trenches.

A large crater was blown at Hooge in July 1915.

This occurred during a time of relative quiet

on the British part of the Western Front,

when few major assaults were made.

The crater (now water-filled) is quite large, and there are also pillboxes around it, one of which you can enter, it was an interesting experience.

There is a suggested route to follow in the grounds, and around the back of the crater are some shallow trenches; it's not clear if these are original or recreated. Our guide told us that using a GPS trench map navigation system, they do seem to line up quite well with wartime trenches.

Today we walked 6.4 k's