World War One map of the Western Front - Ypres & Messines, Belgium - 1914 - 1918

Original map first published c.1920. Republished July 2016.

World war one map depicting the battlefields of the Western Front at Ypres and Messines in Belgium during the first world war 1914 - 1918. The inset map illustrates Zillebeke to Polygon Wood.. The British and German lines are differentiated by the colours blue and red and separated in to three battles as the key at the top and bottom of the map.

When this map was published:

Published as at the time of this map, c.1920:

Ypres, held by the British throughout the war, was the scene of some of the most critical fighting. Ypres, the world famous town in West Flanders , Belgium, 32 miles south-west of Bruges, had a population of over 18,000 before the war. Within twelve months of the outbreak of hostilities it was a battered rubbish heap, and despite fierce German attacks to capture the famous salient, the key to th Channel Ports, it remained in British possession. The district around Ypres was immortalised for all time by the valor of the British soldiers during nearly five years of stubborn fighting.