Bunker (de Ruiter)

This bunker formed part of the Flandern I Stellung, a strongpoint behind the German lines. There was heavy fighting here during the liberation of Roeselare in 1918. The bunker served as a forward aid post, or 'bunker field hospital'. The German cemetery next to it disappeared in the 1950s.Flandern I Stellung

Flandern I Stellung
The Flandern I Stellung was a German defensive line, specifically created to defend Roeselare against the Allies. For that reason, it lay just in front of the town gates. After all, Roeselare was the most important transport junction for the German armies in Flanders. Barbed wire was hidden among hedges, houses were turned into machine-gun nests, and bunkers were concealed by bushes or other landscape features.

The end game
In the autumn of 1918, the Allies began the final attack - the Liberation Offensive. After overrunning the German lines during the first few days, the offensive ground to a halt against the Flandern I Stellung. The early days of October saw desperate fighting in the lines around this bunker. On 3 October, Belgian troops forced their way through to the hamlet of De Ruiter, where they occupied several houses at the road junction. However, there was then a lull in the fighting as both sides had suffered heavy losses. The offensive resumed on 14 October. The fresh French troops succeeded in breaking through the lines, and liberated Roeselare on the same day.

Field hospital and cemetery
The bunker at De Ruiter served as a fortified barracks or as a medical aid post. A large German cemetery had been there for some time. About 2.500 dead lay in the cemetery around the bunker. In the mid-fifties, however, the Germans decided to centralise their cemeteries in Flanders, and the cemetery around this bunker was also to disappear. The graves were relocated to the Menen Wald cemetery in Menin.

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