Rattevalle Bridge

This bridge over the Nieuwpoort-Plassendale canal is on the German route towards the locks of Nieuwpoort. The fighting around the Rattevalle bridge is intense. On the evening of October 20, 1914, the residents of the nearby Slijpe can hear the wild shouts and curses of the hand-to-hand combat reaching the village. The next day, a German soldier wrote on a barn door: "Gott mit uns und der Teufel mit dem Rattefalle". A German soldier even wrote a poem titled 'Rattefalle... Menschenfalle'.

Rattefalle ... Menschenfalle
Lonely – in the field – by the roadside
Graves, dug by a friend’s hand.
Only a cross, often with a helmet on it,
Tells who came to die here.
Nonetheless, you are well known to us,
Holy graves in Flanders.

Roughly translated:
Lonely – in the field – at the roadside,
Graves, dug by a friend’s hand.
Only a cross, usually with a helmet on it,
Tells who came to die here.
Still, you are well known to us,
Holy graves in Flanders.

After the conquest, the Rattevallebrug district serves as a pioneer park. War materials such as planks, cement, sand, gravel, barbed wire, posts, and ammunition are transported here via a laid track. The Germans also use long, narrow boats for the supply of materials via the canal. Photo: the narrowing is intended to only allow German boats. The emergency bridge was equipped with camouflage screens (collection Ronny Van Troostenberghe).

Toerisme Middelkerke