Menin Gate
The Menenpoort (English Menin Gate ) is an arch of honor in memory of the First World War in the Belgian city of Ypres . The memorial is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of Great Britain and the Commonwealth , who were not identified in the battles for Ypres without having their own grave.
According to plans by Reginald Blomfield , the memorial was built as a triumphal arch with a barrel-vaulted gateway at the eastern entrance of Ypres on the site of one of the old city gates of the Vauban city fortifications and inaugurated on July 24, 1927 by Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer . The location marks the starting point of one of the most important roads used by Allied troops during the war to the front north of the city, towards the village of Menen , where the Ypres Arch was held against the German troops .
The large memorial hall with its engraved names honors the 54,896 missing soldiers who died in the first three battles of Flanders before August 15, 1917 . The 34,984 names of soldiers who went missing afterwards were recorded in the Tyne Cot Memorial near Passendale . The names of those who were later found and identified will be removed from the memorial after their burial.
Since July 2, 1928, every evening at 8 p.m., trumpeters from the municipal fire brigade have stopped traffic through the Menenpoort and blowed the “ Last Post ” in memory of the fallen. This tradition was only interrupted during World War II; from May 20, 1940 to September 6, 1944, the ceremony was moved to Brookwood Cemetery , England .
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Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 7 " N , 2 ° 53 ′ 30" E