Wijtschate
Wijtschate , older spelling also Wijtschaete or Wytschaete , is today a district of the municipality of Heuvelland in the Belgian province of West Flanders with around 2100 inhabitants. The village is the largest district in the municipality of Heuvelland, both in terms of population and area.
Role in the First World War
Due to its proximity to the city of Ypres , Wijtschate, like the other localities in the municipality of Heuvelland, was the scene of fierce fighting between German and Entente troops during World War I , particularly from large infantry attacks against heavily developed positions defended by machine guns , gas warfare , mine warfare and prolonged artillery fire as well as first dogfights were marked. German troops took the place in the First Battle of Flanders after heavy fighting in early November 1914 and held it until 1917. In particular, the front bulge of the " Wytschaete-Bogen " around the strategically important ridge between Wijtschate and Mesen was repeatedly fiercely contested. The place was used militarily by German troops and redesigned accordingly. In 1916, with the Korte and Hubertus tunnels, two underground bulletproof tunnel barracks were built that offered accommodation with 200 and 35 beds. While the foremost front line ran about one kilometer west of Wytschaete in the lowland, the second front line, known as the elevation, surrounded the place. The village was almost completely destroyed by artillery fire during the war.
The landscape around the place was especially drawn in 1917 at the battle of the Wytschaete-Bogen by explosive funnels, which are still visible today . The explosion of 19 mines, with a total of around 400 tons of explosives, which the British detonated on June 7, 1917, was the largest and loudest conventional explosion in human history to date. Almost 10,000 German soldiers were killed within seconds. Military cemeteries and monuments to the numerous missing soldiers bear witness to the victims of the fighting.
At the beginning of the Fourth Ypres Battle , the Germans also retook Wijtschate in the so-called Wijtschaete battle on April 11, 1918, in order to finally leave the place in September 1918.
Between Wijtschate and Voormezele is Bayernwald , a restored German site from 1914 that has been accessible to visitors since 2004.
Battlefield archeology
In 2018 an archaeological excavation was carried out on the northern outskirts of Wijtschate by an international team of archaeologists, historians and volunteer excavation workers. The investigations concerned a military position at " Höhe 80 " between 1914 and 1918 . It was about two kilometers from the front line and had a strategically important position because of the view of the Ypres arch . The position included trenches , buildings, a command center with observation posts and tunnel connections to the front. The excavation was financed by crowdfunding , as the Belgian state did not provide any financial means. The remains of around 80, mostly German soldiers were found during the excavation.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Florian Stark: The biggest conventional explosion hit the Bavarians in: Die Welt from November 20, 2014
- ↑ Bayernwald German Trenches, Wijtschate, Ypres Salient. (English)
- ↑ a b German bulwark "Höhe 80" is exposed at flanderninfo.be on April 16, 2018
- ↑ "Height 80": Urgently looking for money for excavation ... at flanderninfo.be on December 8th, 2017
- ↑ Fabian Schweyher: "If you find human bones, it's sobering" at t-online.de from June 30, 2018
Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ' N , 2 ° 53' E