War horses found during dig at the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, 20/6/12

[chrislock]

Not sure where to post this but maybe here is a good place to start. Mods please feel free to relocate if required.

Whilst attempting to walk past the Menin Gate Memorial building site today, I realised a crowd had gathered around a trench outside of the memorial who were clearly involved in much discussion in flemish dialect. My learned Dutch was simply not good enough to cope with this however, I could pull out some and more but what caught my eye amazed me. On the floor in front of me were horse jaws, scattered teeth, femurs, ribs, spinal joints etc.

It came to be that during the morning's dig, 3 war horses had been discovered buried in what was believed to be a shell crater burial right in front of the Menin Gate Memorial itself. The horses were still wearing some tack and were all beileved to be British shoed but some had limbs missing.

The horse bones and tack were recovered and taken away in crates for cleaning and future display probably in the IFM according to the local archeologists who were embedded with the workmen.

The few remains I saw were the last to be taken away with the majority having already been removed. The archeologists were originally there to record and photograph the 14th century ramparts which had been exposed and the concensus being, that the horses were part of or a British gun/transport team caught out by shell burst and then pushed into a shell crater for burial.

There they would remain until discovered and removed today. Luckily I had my camera with me so if somebody would be so kind as to pm me their email addy I will forward some pics for kindly uploading onto this thread: this task being far outside of my capabilities or my PC's capability!

It does seem that no soldiers remains were found however, I did notice a well preserved British tommie's boot and other Great War metalwork within the spoil heap nearby.

Perhaps when conjoined this paints a fuller picture or scenario...

Chris

[ulsterlad2]

Photo 1.

[ulsterlad2]

.

[ulsterlad2]

.

[ulsterlad2]

.

[ulsterlad2]

Hi Chris. Thanks for the info and pics.

Poor horses.

[chrislock]

War Horse the movie brought me to tears as have many soldiers diary revelations on the lot of the war horse. Last year an Aussie lady showed me her Grand fathers diary log revealing an incident which happened at Hell Fire Corner. It read something like this:

The gunners had secured, trained and brought their 6 horse gun team all the way from the UK and in one terrible moment they were caught out by a salvo of air bursts whilst crossing this hated spot. The gunners took refuge in the ditches and somehow survived without injury but the horses.... Several were down screaming and kicking violently with the others leaning against the limbers and struggling to stay on their feet. The screams were the worst her Grand father had ever heard in all the time he had been with these horses and one by one they sank slowly to the ground or were held up by tack and each other. Soon they were all dead, either by shell burst injury or gun shot from the gun crew. Her Grand father never got over this one event!!

The above diary indent was in pencil and was smudged and hard to read. I can only imagine how the smudging came to be. Whenever I drive or walk past Hell Fire Corner I think of that terrible incident.

Christ. The sooner someone gets a War Horse Memorial up and sited at Hell Fire Corner the happier I will be.

[Roger H]

Chris

This is all really interesting. Please keep us updated.

Roger

[chrislock]

Time permitting I will visit the site again tomorrow and see if I can secure some pics of the horses in the mass grave before they were removed bone by bone. I arrived at the back end as they were finishing however, I have been informed that official pics were taken by the dig team. All I can see in my head now is similar to that awful scene described up at Hell Fire Corner. Due to the weight of a downed dead weight horse, I am now also seeing in my head other horses being used to drag these mutilated fellow beasts into the shell hole for burial. This is really getting to me now!!!

[Paul Reed]

Much interest in this on Twitter.

Thanks to Chris for allowing me to use some of his photos on my blog: http://sommecourt.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/war-horses-found-at-the-menin-gate/

[ulsterlad2]

This is really getting to me now!!!

Not surprised Chris. It is very sad and upsetting the suffering that the war horses/mules endured.

Reminds me of the time I read about the 15th Bn CEF going to Estree Cauchie. There, in an orchard, hundreds of horses had been mercifully put down because they had been worked beyond total exhaustion and were not even capable of eating their oats. Horse lovers were glad their service was PBI.

[Marco]

When displayed it should/could look something like this: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=179646&hl=

Regards,

Marco

[chrislock]

Thanks for that Marco. I have offered a possible reason supplied via the Household Cavalry for the horses feet being removed. It makes sense I think.

I will now make an attempt to visit this worthy display.

Chris

[old-ted]

Thanks for posting Chris. Sad but facinating at the same time.

Regards

John