1917-2017: Belgium remembers the First World War

27/06/2017

Belgium was the scene of some of the First World War's most bloody battles. The many war graves in the Westhoek area near Ypres bear silent witness to this fact. In 2017, many events are planned across the country to mark the 100th anniversary of these dark pages in our history.

On 7 June 1917, Messines, a village close to the French border, was the site of the largest explosion in the First World War on 7 June 1917, and was as such also the most devastating in history, until the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The series of explosions created an artificial earthquake that could be felt as far as the Netherlands and England.  It caused the death of an estimated 10,000 soldiers. 100 years later to the day, the British Crown Prince William and the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny came to Messines to attend a memorial ceremony.

The mine battle of Messines was the prelude to the famous battle of Passchendaele. Between 31 July and 10 November 1917, British, Australian and Canadian troops teamed up with the Belgian and French armies to fight the German artillery. 100 days of heavy fighting caused approximately 245,000 allied and 215,000 German victims. On 30 and 31 July the British government is to hold a series of events in remembrance of ‘the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele’, in collaboration with the town of Ypres, the municipality of Zonnebeke and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917.