Hi,
Last year in december we started a new website about the Poelcapelle Area at 14-18. (Olivier van Moeffaert en Stijn Butaye of Pondfarm)
1/4th is online but don't have fear, 855 files are now online! With old photograps, maps,...
People that can help us with some information about Poelcapelle are most welcome!
Here is the introduction about the website:
“Poelkapelle or Poelcapelle is a village that was noticed in the west of Europe because of the First World War. When it didn’t exist anymore. Obviously, Poelcapelle wasn’t the only village that ‘disappeared’, but of all the destroyed villages in the Ypres Salient, Poelcapelle was the most damaged according to the war pictures. Passendale or Passchendaele is more notorious, but there you could find three rocks on each other, and not one in Poelcapelle. The only things you could find there in 1917, were brick dust and red mud. The village simply didn’t exist anymore, but was invisible and untraceable, it returned to its original state of before the chapel: at the pool.”
These words were written decades ago, by Jan Steen and Robert Baccarne from Poelcapelle, because Poelcapelle during the First World War would never be forgotten. Now it’s our task and duty to follow their example and to help people remember what happened in Poelcapelle 90 years ago. Otherwise the suffering and the grief of the men who fought here would be useless! They fought in a war that would end all the wars!
To remember what happened in the area of Poelcapelle, we started this website. Every piece of the village is described: the farms, the monuments and the (disappeared) cemeteries. A lot of regiments fought their courage out of them in Poelcapelle. A lot of reports of these battles can be found here. Charles Dresse was a young Belgian boy who sacrificed his life for the freedom of his native country and his family gave him a monument at the spot where he fell in battle. The well-known legendary captain Georges Guynemer, who had 53 aerial victories, never returned after he ascended on the 11th of September in 1917. He died in Poelcaplle and he got the Guynemer Monument there, for his courage as war volunteer. The well-known zeppelin Staaken, which is the biggest plain, crashed (21 April 1918) in the village of Poelcapelle and nowadays you still can find pieces of it. Shrapnel Charlie or Ivan Sinaeve also got a piece on this website because he helps us not to forget Poelcapelle: he makes little masterpieces of shrapnel balls which you can find on the battle fields. He wants to make just as much art works as names of the missing persons on the Menin Gate in Ypres. There was also a cemetery of tanks on the road between Poelcapelle and Sint-Juliaan. Johan Vanbeselare is an expert on this and is making a replica of the tank Damon 2. This tank stood a long time on the marketplace of Poelcapelle. There is also a non-profit organization ‘Poelcapelle p1917 Associaton’, in honour of the First World War.
Thanks to: Wilfried Deraeve, Dominique Cool, Johan and Luc Vanbeselaere of the non-profit organization ‘Poelcaplle p1917 Association’ and photographer Marco Magielse, Luc Vanacker, Jef Courtens, Steve Morse, Luc Inion, Johan Dejonge, Roger Verbeke, Varlet Farm, Jan Steen and Robert Baccarne, Piet Steen, Michel Vangheluwe, Ivan Sinaeve (Charpnel Charlie), Yvonne and Johan (Regulus 1) of the forum ‘Forum Eerste Wereldoorlog’, Mark Desmet, Philippe Delameilleure, Heidi Vanackere and Sarah Van Steen and Cindy Timperman of the municipal authorities from Langemark-Poelkapelle, Geert Quaghebeur, Lieselot Degraeve,... who helped us by delivering usefull information or who helped us to create this website.
Thank you for visiting this website and hopefully this will help you to remember the village of Poelcappelle during ’14-’18.
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Many Thanks!
Olivier Van Moeffaert and Stijn Butaye
I would also be most grateful, if you could forward the contact details of the replica tank owner please? As an ex tank crewman and living in Ieper, I would love to visit Damon 2 if possible please?
