James Wright

Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres

Salient.  The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge.  The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres.  This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence.  There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele.  The German offensive of March 1918 met with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a combined effort by the Allies in September.  The Memorial now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

Read more about the cemetery on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website.