Houthulst Forest

Houthulst Forest - which was much bigger in 1914 than it is today - provided camouflaged cover close to the front for important German storage and munitions depots throughout the war. This was where materials, shells and supplies were stored, where captive balloons were hoisted skywards and where pioneer troops were based.

As the war drew to a close, large quantities of munitions in particular were left behind by the retreating German Army. Because the infrastructure for the storage of these dangerous projectiles was already in place, it was decided to use the forest as a collecting point for all other munitions discovered elsewhere on the battlefields. And this is what still happens today. The forest is now home to the bomb disposal service of the Belgian Army - DOVO.

In total, since 1918 there have been 599 explosions of munitions involving casualties, 360 of them fatal. As late as March 2014, two men were killed when a First World War shell exploded at their place of work. During the same month 800 shells, most of them containing gas, were removed from a meadow near Passendale. The very first post-war fatality occurred less than 24 hours after the Armistice had been signed...

The Belgian military cemetery in Houthulst Forest, opened in 1923, is a concentration cemetery, containing burials that were mostly brought here from elsewhere. It also contains the graves of Italian prisoners of war, who died near here whilst carrying out work for the German Army at the front.

Vl. Toeristisch bezienswaardigheden