Whizzbang Posted 23 February , 2015 Share Posted 23 February , 2015 Having long been absolutely fascinated by the fighting on and under Hill 60 (Ypres Salient), does anybody have some rare photos of the battlefield during the war years - aerial/oblique or otherwise And are there any photos of Hill 60 straight after the war ? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 24 February , 2015 Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Whizzbang, From :John Giles, The Ypres Salient, 1970, p. 129 Photo taken from The Dump Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 24 February , 2015 Author Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Thanks Aurel - that is a fascinating photo - I believe this was taken in the Spring of 1915 ? I wonder if there any similar shots of the hill post war ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 24 February , 2015 Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Whizzbang, One more. Same source. Sorry, no date mentioned. And I'll send you a PM later today. (I'm off now, in a hurry.) Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardgreen1908 Posted 24 February , 2015 Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Whizzbang p96 of the official History of 47th Division. Here is the link to cut and paste https://ia801401.us.archive.org/7/items/47thlondondivisi00maudrich/47thlondondivisi00maudrich_bw.pdf regards Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulgranger Posted 24 February , 2015 Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Peter Barton's panoramic book 'The Battlefields of the First World War' has a clearer version of the picture Aurel has posted from John Giles book. If you Google Hill 60 under 'Images' you'll get a whole raft of photos, but many of them are not of the Hill, and few appear to be immediately after the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 24 February , 2015 Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Paul, True. And the right 1/3 of the photo is missing from the one I posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 24 February , 2015 Author Share Posted 24 February , 2015 Thanks to everyone for their input/photos I find it amazing that such a famous place does not have more photos - maybe it was just to dangerous to photograph - but in the post war years ?? There must surely be some private collections with some of the hill ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 25 February , 2015 Share Posted 25 February , 2015 Whizzbang, Did you receive the PM I sent yesterday ? Also this : what is post-war ? You wrote "straight after the war". So you mean latest : 1930 or so ? Well, I'm only asking because 1930s and 1970s is also post-war ... Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 25 February , 2015 Author Share Posted 25 February , 2015 Hi Aurel I did many thanks And by post war years I mean the period straight after November 1918 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 28 February , 2015 Share Posted 28 February , 2015 Sorry, Whizzbang. The oldest post-war photo of (a trench at) Hill 60 I can find is from 1938 (from the magazine "Twenty Years After". There is one in Giles, Ypres Salient, p 132, caption : "The Ypres-Roulers line, looking toward Ypres from the road bridge" [the author means : the brdge at Hill 60). But in my opinion there may be some doubt, as this railroad line was (is) not Ypres - Roulers (Roeselare), but Ypres - Wervik - Kortrijk etc. Also : the photo is dated "10th November 1918". 10th Novemeber ! If it had been taken two days later, then that would have been post-war ... Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 1 March , 2015 Author Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Thanks Aurel Photos of Hill 60 (without foliage/bushes etc) would be very interesting to see - as it was a frequently visited post war site, surely there must be something out there in private collections - anyone ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 1 March , 2015 Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Whizzbang, You may find some with Google, "Hill 60". Maybe from 1917-18, but I think I saw some (?) "sometime after the war". Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 1 March , 2015 Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Hill 60 Cnock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 1 March , 2015 Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Cnock, Nice photo ! Never seen that one before. I've just found that the original's Queen's Rifles Monument was erected in 1923. So the photo must be 1923 or soon after. And showing houses already having been built opposite. Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 1 March , 2015 Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Hill 60 Cnock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 1 March , 2015 Share Posted 1 March , 2015 Hill 60, Interbellum Cnock Hill 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 8 March , 2015 Author Share Posted 8 March , 2015 Thanks Cnock - fascinating photos - you can really see how raw and battered the hill was 5/10 years after hostilities had ended. Where were the trenches located ? Were they real trenches from the war or were they dug for tourists afterwards ? Many thanks Whizzbang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelcave Posted 8 March , 2015 Share Posted 8 March , 2015 My father can recall going around the trenches and also the billet tunnels/deep dugouts (complete with bunks, kit etc etc) on a tour of the battlefields he made with his father (7th Leicesters) in 1937; I imagine that the trenches were at least based on the originals. He was very disappointed that these had gone when he took me on my first visit in the summer of 1968. Off topic somewhat, but we have a rather good photo of him in one of the saps in the preserved trench system at Vimy as a lad of 14, again in the same sap on his second visit in 1968, again in 2008 and finally in 2012, on the 75th anniversary. Alas, he is not up to making any further visits these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 9 March , 2015 Author Share Posted 9 March , 2015 That's interesting thanks Nigel Do you know where around the hill these trenches were located ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIFFO Posted 9 March , 2015 Share Posted 9 March , 2015 WHIZZBANG if you go buy/read Nigel's excellent book on hill60 you will find out lots of things (Nigel what % discount do I get) Biff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 9 March , 2015 Author Share Posted 9 March , 2015 Hi Biff I do own a copy - must have a read through again I also have the mighty "20 Years After" tomes - plenty of good photos in there as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrislock Posted 9 March , 2015 Share Posted 9 March , 2015 Henri Braem's book "The Battle of the Railway" covers the WW2 fighting which raged over the hill in May 1940 which resulted in much damage yet again especially to the big Aussie built WW1 bunker, the obliteration of the Queen Victoria's Rifles memorial, damage to the Australian tunnelers memorial and many local houses. His book also lists the burial locations of field graves of both British and German dead on the hill and nearby catapillar crater before they were reinterred elsewhere. Clearly many of the impact craters and scrapes are of WW2 vintage. Great book but unfortunately only in Dutch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizzbang Posted 9 March , 2015 Author Share Posted 9 March , 2015 Interesting Chris - i never knew the extent of the fighting here in WW2 It must have been quite strange for these troops to be fighting on an already battered hill !! I seem to recall that there were some tunnels in the vicinity as well ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrislock Posted 9 March , 2015 Share Posted 9 March , 2015 I never until I moved here, then read Henri's book and recovered the burial documents from the Ypres town WW2 archives. Not sure about WW2 tunnels however, plenty of slit trenches and fox hole type defences but it was the severe damage which is listed house by house which saw most destroyed over a period of a few days which amazed me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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