Spanbroekmolen
Spanbroekmolen is a small group of farms in
History
Spanbroekmolen was named after a windmill that stood on the site for three centuries until it was ruined by the Germans on 1 November 1914. In World War I, the area was the site of intense and sustained fighting between German and British forces. Between 1914 and 1917, the Western Front ran through the area, and the original buildings were completely destroyed. Because of its strategic position on the Messines Ridge south of the Ypres Salient, the Germans used the site for a front-line fortification. As the Allied attacks along the Western Front became more formidable, the Germans added further defences and trench positions at Spanbroekmolen and connected their original lines with the neighbouring strongpoints, which were code-named Peckham and Kruisstraat by the British.
On 12 March 1915, Lieutenant C. G. Martin volunteered to lead a small bombing party against a section of the enemy trenches at Spanbroekmolen which was holding up the advance. Before he started he was wounded, but, taking no notice, he carried on with the attack which was completely successful. He and his small party held the trench against all counter-attacks for two and a half hours until a general withdrawal was ordered[1] and Martin was awarded the Victoria Cross. He later achieved the rank of Brigadier and served during World War II.
In spring 1916, the Germans conducted two gas attacks on Wulverghem from their Spanbroekmolen position. These gas attacks were part of the sporadic fighting which took place between battles in the Ypres Salient. The British Second Army held the ground from Messines Ridge north to Steenstraat, opposite the German XXIII Reserve Corps. From 21–23 April, British artillery-fire exploded several gas cylinders in the German lines around Spanbroekmolen, which released greenish-yellow clouds of gas. A gas alert was given on 25 April, when the wind began to blow from the north-east and routine work was suspended; on 29 April, two German soldiers deserted and warned that an attack was imminent. The first German attack began just after midnight on 30 April and a cloud of a chlorine and phosgene mixture moved on the wind through no man's land. A second gas attack was launched on 17 June but the British managed to repulse the German patrols.
In the
Commemoration
The mine crater was acquired in 1929 by the Toc H foundation in Poperinge. Sometimes also called "Lone Tree Crater", it is today recognised as peace memorial[8][9][4] and known as "Pool of Peace". To its south lies the Lone Tree CWGC Cemetery, to its north-east the Spanbroekmolen British CWGC Cemetery.
Gallery
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Spanbroekmolen mine crater
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View from Spanbroekmolen crater towards the Kruisstraat craters
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Graves in Lone Tree CWGC Cemetery
See also
Citations
- ^ "No. 29135". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 April 1915. p. 3815.
- ^ Wynne 1939, pp. 266–271.
- ^ The Tunnelling Companies RE Archived May 10, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, access date 25 April 2015
- ^ a b c d Holt & Holt 2014, pp. 192–193.
- ^ Edmonds 1948, p. 53.
- ^ a b Jones 2010, p. 151.
- ^ a b Mallett, p. 116
- ^ "Messines". Retrieved 16 February 2015.
- ^ "Photo gallery: Battle of Messines Ridge". Retrieved 16 February 2015.
References
- Books
- Barrie, A. (1981) [1962]. War Underground. War in the Twentieth Century (Star ed.). London: Frederick Muller. ISBN 0-352-30970-9.
- ISBN 0-89839-166-0.
- Holt, Tonie; Holt, Valmai (2014) [1997]. Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient & Passchendaele. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-551-9.
- Jones, Simon (2010). Underground Warfare 1914-1918. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-84415-962-8.
- Lampaert, Roger (1989). De Mijnenoorlog in Vlaanderen (1914–1918) (in Dutch). Roesbrugge, Belgium: Drukkerij Schoonaert. OCLC 902147968.
- Passingham, I. (1998). Pillars of Fire: The Battle of Messines Ridge, June 1917. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1704-0.
- Turner, Alexander (2010). Messines 1917: The Zenith of Siege Warfare. Campaign Series. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-845-7.
- Wynne, G. C. (1976) [1939]. If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West (Greenwood Press, NY ed.). Cambridge: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-8371-5029-9.
- Work in the Field Under the Engineer-in-Chief, B. E. F.: Geological Work on the Western Front. The Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War, 1914–19. Chatham: The Secretary, Institution of Royal Engineers. 1922. OCLC 613625502. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- Journals
- Cleland, H. (1918). "The Geologist in War Time: Geology on the Western Front" (PDF). Economic Geology. XIII (2): 145–146. ISSN 0361-0128.
- Newspapers
- Tweedie, Neil (12 January 2004). "Farmer who is sitting on a bomb". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
External links
- Spanbroekmolen Mine Crater Memorial — The Pool of Peace
- Tunnelling companies RE
- Database with technical specifications of the mines in the Battle of Messines [permanent dead link] (Dutch)
- Messines Ridge photo essay
- Map of the mines in the Battle of Messines
- Map of the mines in the Battle of Messines (Google Earth)
- Battle of Messines Ridge with images of the mine craters
- The Western Front Today, Messines