First World War - The Belgian Front

[@redtomcat1725]

The Belgian story is not covered as much as the major battles. I am pleased you brought this to light !

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I agree: Belgium's part in WW1 is very much neglected, particularly their heroic defence in 1914.

[@computerjohn7677]

Thank you, sir, for your interest in sharing your videos with youtube. I first came across one of your videos last night around midnight. After a little rest I'm continuing to watch your videos today. WE must never forget our past in order to know WHO we are and WHERE we ARE today. Mucho Amor para usted senor Upton from Austin, Texas!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@keithkennedy4420]

I find your videos absolutely fascinating! I’ve learned a lot from you about this brutal war. Thank you.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@Jin-Ro]

You should write a book. Half guide, half your impressions of the front. I'd buy it for sure.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

I do have a book publishing company. I have republished my GF's battalions WW1 war record and my fathers WW2 batteries war record. See www.sdubooks.com

[@dervolkstribun6240]

absolutely, he is a cradle of knowledge of the great war..

[@pcgamez4ever14]

Very very interesting video, like all your video's. I'm Belgian and I've been very often in Nieuwpoort, Ramskappelle, Diksmuide ... You can find a lot of information and history about the war there, but it's always the big monuments and histories I already knew. I'm very interested in the Great War in my country, but I was looking for the smaller histories and monuments. It's very difficult to find them on your own. I was looking for a good source of information about these smaller stories. With your account I finally found it!! Thank you to make these efforts, these video's. They are very interesting, especially the smaller buildings/restants like the bunkers on the 'Frontzate'. With the information in your video's I can imagine what happened in my small country, Belgium. I recently found the website of the In Flanders Fields Museum. On this website you can search for names who have fought in Belgium during the Great War. There is a lot of information about the soldiers like birth date, date of death, reason of death, regiment ... It's very interesting to visit this site, to remember the men who fought in Belgium. I recommend everyone to take a look at this site. You can search on name, maybe you (or someone else who reads this) can find someone of your family, you never know ... Thanks for your video's, have a nice day everyone!!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@tonyhayes-piuk]

Wow. Outstanding footage and commentary. A real good insight.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@frankbr5991]

To get a feeling how was the situation in Trenches or mines, you have to visit the Tower in Dixmulde(German written) Dijksmulde. in one of the floors its built like you are in a mine and you will hear noises from a battle. I try to escape very fast.... Nevertheless, this museum is a must for everybody who is interesting in WW1

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@RolandPeteur]

Diksmuide

[@clive.r1414]

Very informative video Stephen, thank you. I understand why you kept apologising for its sanitised state but when you took the zig zag path to the escape vehicle it did bring to my mind to how awful moving along them would have been choked with people, alive dead & injured anywhere on the Western Front. Love the commentary..... it feels homely to me being semi Brummie!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. You should have heard my accent when I was 17.

[@pureloyalist9277]

Thats a maze Steven love to walk it , thanks for the video

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@pureloyalist9277]

@@StevenUpton14-18 And we think we have it hard today, can't imagine what these men and women went through, sad very sad and all because of someone's greed for world power ( Hitler ) , l treasure a song called, "SO MANY LIVES" amongst many more but this one says it all l think LEST WE FORGET TO ALL FORCES , l put flower's down twice a year at our local war monument more if need be, also when the band do memorial parades , keep up the great work Steven , it people like you that keep memories alive and l thank you for your time and effort to show and remember people that this is what it was really like . 👏👏👏👏👏🤝🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@jackthebassman1]

Thanks for another superb video and commentary Steve, I understand what you say about the sanitised appearance but to my view at least they are still there and I wonder how well they would have stood up to erosion etc if not done in this way, very much like the trenches at Vimy.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. Certainly a preserved, although sanitised, site is better than one that has 100 years of erosion.

[@jhvoojh]

Really enjoy your channel mate. Excellent, and nice to hear a proper accent!!! (I'm a West Bromwich lad.)

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@TrailsTzar]

I really appreciate your "as it looks today" videos - fascinating! Very impressed at how much has been preserved, and especially how well the cemeteries are maintained. My grandfather served in the RAMC as a stretcher bearer, and I look forward to visiting these sites soon. Thank you!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@dervolkstribun6240]

Slowly but surely, I am grinding thru your splendid videos. One day, I want to walk those fields with you and listen to your explanation. In return, we will walk the german frontlines, while I reciting about the things, happenend there so long ago. I clearly can see, especially as former soldiers, our duty, to remember, to speak out and , in the end, to shake hands over their graves with the promise: Never again!!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Your ideas would make a good film.

[@iang1119]

Your series is FANTASTIC. Have you given the IWM a complete copy of all your work? It is an amazing work that needs far more exposure. It could get more people interested in understanding the geographies behind the history. Until I saw all your videos I did not understand issues such as the mining, the floods, the flat landscape, etc etc etc. Fascinating.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I have not considered approaching the IWM, but suspect they would need a more professional production. Also, I am aware that I have made some historical errors which would need correcting.

[@flashladderacrobat]

Very interesting video with excellent narration , i will watch more of your video's before I go and watch the film 1917 next week , just to immerse myself more into that period. Thanks for the upload.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I also intend seeing the film. Followed by a 4 day trip to the Ypres Salient area.

[@philipe7937]

Ww1 history is so interesting to me. Thank you for this presentation

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@rafopderand8524]

The Trench of Death - De Dodengang as we call it in Dutch - thanks its nickname to the fighting there in 1915. These reconstructed trenches/breastworks show you what the place looked like in 1916-1918, when it was far less dangerous there. In 1915 however these particular trenches would've been very shallow, you had to remain crouched the entire time when you were in them. Naturally, in these circumstances, losses were high - and that's when the location got its nickname. There are several good Belgian books on The Trench of Death, but I doubt any of it was ever translated. The most curious spot is the "mice trap", right at the end of the Trench of Death and opposite the German pillbox. You filmed a picture of the mice trap at the 24:57 mark, Steven. When you went into the mice trap either as a German or a Belgian soldier, you didn't have a good view of what you were going to come up against - that place remained very dangerous throughout the war and it was ideal for an ambush. It was part of no-man's land. It's true that the Trench of Death is too sanitized, but having concrete sandbags mean the authorities don't have to do repair work all the time, as is the case with the Bayernwald trenches. Due to heavy rainfall those need to be restored once in a while - just like during the war.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching and this information.

[@66kbm]

I think Ian fron the You Tube Channel Forgotten Weapons did this walk as well. Its good to see how you both compare it.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I have seen a few of the Forgotten Weapons films but not this one.

[@leesherman100]

Out bloody standing video. Horrible conditions for all involved in this war to end all wars. Hell would have been an improvement.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. Probably no different, in essence, to being in the front-line of any war, WW2, Vietnam, Iraq etc.

[@robertneven7563]

indeed if the germans strat to retrat the war was over , nobody ask the germans to start the bloody first an d the second W War

[@BelTricky]

At the end is an interesting bunker, called the “mousetrap”. If I may believe the guide the Belgian soldiers were locked in during the nights to prevent them to run and even for their safety. Just a few meters away you have a German bunker, the only point were the German army passed the river “de IJzer”.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I do not think I 'forgot', probably did not know about it as I did not have a guided tour.

[@bjornjarnsida7241]

Good video, my grandmother was from Belgium & her Father fought in the First World War, it’s good to see what he might have seen as he’s the only person I’m related to who was definitely there, there may be others but he’s a certain.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@billyslittlebigadventurech9050]

hi steven. i was there in august 2014. got talking to an elderly couple who where telling me that their grandfather fought in these trenches. they were call the trenches of death because so many soldiers where being killed at an alarming rate. it was vertually impossible to bury or clear the bodies quick enough, so the soldiers where treading over bodies. must have been horrendous. they was saying that both sides found it easy to either throw grenades or fire mortars because of the closness of the front lines. ..

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Its impossible to imagine what it would have been like. Just glad my time in the military was in the 70's when not much happened.

[@Rushmore222]

The German Army vastly underestimated the far smaller Belgian Army's willingness to fight.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@johntait491]

I'm watching this video as I have just finished the book "Back to the Front" by Stephen O'Hara and his walks through the trenches of WW1 from Nieuport through to the Swiss Border conducted intermittently over an number of years, and your excellent video would give a visual perspective to the written word. Have you read Steven..? It is a interesting (and depressing) read.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. No, I have not read Stephen O'Hara's book.

[@johntait491]

@@StevenUpton14-18 Published by Avon Books back in 1996, it may still be available in the second-hand market. Thanks for all your excellent and informative videos Steven. 👍

[@StevenUpton14-18]

@@johntait491 - Thank you.

[@navalhistoryhub3748]

At the 20:50 minute mark you show an image with two graves just in front of the belgian line! Its interesting to notice the raised plankway that portrudes out to give access to the two graves. Never seen anything like that before. Would have been suicidally dangerous to step foot on that plankway at any point. Once again a great video that plankway just puzzled me?

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I have to confess that I do not remember it as it has been quite sometime since I filmed this.

[@Errror404]

As this video played, I followed along on Google Maps. Interesting that the final trench aerial photos are all pixelated by Google, you can not see any of it. Do a map search on "Dodengang" and you'll see the bend in the canal, and the German bunker you mention at the end of your trench walk, but the rest is concealed from view.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@apfeofanov]

Why is that?

[@margarethubbard2146]

Steve, re: the Demarcation Stones. Am I right in thinking that the helmet depicted on top of the stone shows the nationality of the troops who held that particular area in November 1918?

[@thatsnice6948]

The trench site is property of the Belgian army (as a museum). Every base or property owned by the Belgian army is pixelated by Google because of this ownership, even when it's a museum. Hopefully it's a bit clearer now ;)

[@gromit3315]

Hello Steve, where did you find all the info for your video’s? I’m certain that even the locals don’t know that there are so many ‘small leftovers’ from the war because theire ‘too small’ or less important to be mentioned in history and guide books. You seem to know very well where to find them. 👍

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I have read a great deal about WW1 and after reading about a particular place I try yo visit it. Over the last 10 years I have been mapping the Western Front for what is still visible today.

[@pureloyalist9277]

Too true mate Stevens went over and above with this channel 👏 what a guy

[@louisavondart9178]

The locals know about all the sites. Their grandparents lived through it all and nowadays people just want to forget. Until they dig up an unexploded shell while doing their gardening. Which happens about 1500 times per year according to the Belgian bomb disposal teams. Farmers just dump shells they find at crossroads, make a call and the army comes and collect them. No fuss, no worries.

[@michelvandyck8589]

17:39"... That's not a canal, it's the river Ijzer ('Iron'), basically the front line between the Belgian coast and the French border. In Belgian memory, having been in the trenches at 'den Ijzer' is an expression, so don't say canal when you mean the river Ijzer. Great video!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching and the correction.

[@louisavondart9178]

Yes, it is " sanitised". If it were to be in original condition, no-one would ever go there. Not with body parts sticking out of the sandbag walls, mud and human waste in every part of the trench system and the constant artillery landing on your head. It wasn't called the Trench of Death as a joke. Life expectancy there was measured in days. But, it's the only part of the Belgian defences that still exist, so don't knock it. One other thing. In WW2 , the Germans built bunkers on almost every intersection and vantage point in Flanders. So what you might think is WW1 stuff is actually WW2 stuff.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. I was not "knocking it", and I certainly would not expect to see body parts lying around, it is rather insulting to suggest that I would. There is restored trench systems in France that have not used concrete and do not look 'sanitised'.

[@ricktellon3755]

Correct, Louis. Engelse arrogantie.

[@forrestgump994]

Hello Steven. Great video! I would like to visit this Belgian sector of the western front wwi. Can you give me the geographical coordinates of Google Maps? Thanks a lot.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. Not used to Google maps, but if I have done it right: 2RWV+68 Diksmuide, Belgium. On a map you can see the former railway line embankment from Nieupoort to Diksmuide. That was the front line for most of the war.

[@forrestgump994]

Thanks a lot for the answer Steven. The trench you filmed in the video is located in the Ypres?

[@StevenUpton14-18]

@@forrestgump994 It is near Diksmuide. Just north west of the town on the banks of a river.

[@dirkvantroyen9170]

Look for the name "Dodengang"

[@simonbevers2802]

I have a question about the war. You can often see that the Allied and German trenches were very close to each other. How did they dig the trenches so close to each other without shooting each other?

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. Do not think of the two sides in a field facing each other and digging in; this happened in 1914 and the gap between the trenches was fairly wide, in some places up to a mile, but usually several hundred yards apart. Over time each side dug multiple lines of trenches. Sometimes the front line was captured in an attack and this meant that your second line became your new front line and your former front line now became the other sides front line. This is one way they could end up so close together. You even had situations where both side shared the same trench after an attack and erected a barricade in it to separate each other.

[@simonbevers2802]

@@StevenUpton14-18 Interesting, thanks for your answer. I understand what you mean when you say that the trench of death is too sanitized, but if it was like the WW I, nobody could visit it because it was terrible.

[@ronaldwhite1730]

Thank - you .

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@bremnersghost948]

The Trench Line/Museum/Watchtower along the Canal looks it's been rebuilt ready to go just in case Belgium is attacked again

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. It's all made from concrete. What I call sanitised! Does not give a true impression of what it was like. See films on Massiges for a more accurate view.

[@flitsertheo]

@@StevenUpton14-18 Real sandbags would have rotted away long ago, so filling these with concrete was actually a clever solution to preserve the past. Otherwise all that would have been left by now would be a few bumps in the landscape.

[@ricktellon3755]

@@flitsertheo Goed gezegd, Theo. Vrijwaren voor de toekomst doe je niet door alles onaangeroerd te laten liggen rotten.

[@ralphbernhard1757]

GB would not stay out of any continental war which endangered their own grip on continental affairs. Unlike their government, who aimed to involve itself in *any* continental war, regardless of who fired the first shots, or why it started, most British civilians didn't want to become involved in a great war on the continent. Of course, London already knew this. That meant that in the leadup to WW1 London (the state) had a little problem: Which was that they (the state) had already determined that Germany was the rival in peace/enemy in war, but "the people" of GB didn't despise/hate the Germans (the people) but their own "allies", the Russians and French, the traditional imperialist rivals, whom they had fought against for centuries, and were firmly ingrained as "enemies" in the belief system of the people who lived in the UK around the turn of the century (around 1900). *And so "poor little Belgium" was born.* Of course it was a propaganda tool, set up after the Napoleonic Wars to protect "poor little (still in single states/kingdoms) Germans" from "nasty nasty France"... France was beaten in 1871, and Germany (in a rock-solid Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary) was now the "power" which needed to be "balanced out"...in peace as well as in war. *The propaganda simply did the 180˚ about-turn Jedi mind-control trick on weak minds :-)* "Friends" one day. "Enemies" the next... Right or wrong? London didn't care. The policy came first. Of course the above comment is no excuse for invading neutrals. It just goes to show how "wrongs" add up. Adding up "wrongs" don't create "rights". It just leads to what the Bible calls "sowing seeds", which all have to "reap" at some point.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@Gloopular]

Great vid - a kind of overlooked aspect of the Great War - the Belgian front. A very soggy piece of geography to boot.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. There was very heavy fighting here in 1914 and then nothing much for the rest of the war. So very little written about the area.

[@Joe-gu6oe]

Have read that the German trenches (in general) were envied by their enemies.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching. The Germans were there to stay, hence the effort they went to in making their trenches as habitat as possible. Whereas the British and French high commands did not want to encourage a defensive attitude. They regarded their trenches as temporary.

[@Joe-gu6oe]

@@StevenUpton14-18 ~ It's amazing that WWI happened just a short time ago. Thanks Steven!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

@@Joe-gu6oe - It is not long since the last soldier dies. Harry Patch was the last British soldier who experienced the trenches of the Western Front. He died in 2009.

[@Joe-gu6oe]

@@StevenUpton14-18 ~ My, my, how our world has changed. Thanks for your replies Steven.

[@davidmurray5399]

Well, no matter how tall you were, poking your head above the parapet was a really bad idea, maybe the last silly thing you'd ever do.

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@robertwalker7960]

That railway line would have been a good posting ....rather than the trench of death....

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@trevortrevortsr2]

Oh you were there when we were there - small world

[@StevenUpton14-18]

It would be a very strange coincidence if someone were to see themselves in one of these videos.

[@trevortrevortsr2]

@@StevenUpton14-18 It would - we were in Ypres & went out to see the new welsh bronze memorial dragon that day

[@shriaingnama]

beating truth although difficult, I don't .

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@dennis7511]

14 downvotes? You vill watch it again and you vill likes it!

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.

[@steenfuglsangjespersen8620]

Når man ikke efterforsker tingene orendtlig ja så for man heller ikke de rigtige oplysninger 🤡

[@StevenUpton14-18]

Thank you for watching.