This photograph by John Warwick Brooke, dated the 9th of August, 1917, shows British troops involved in the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) in Belgium. The battle lasted for over three months, from the end of July to November.
Note the camouflage materials on the back of one of the wagons.
The coastal city of Ostend in Belgium – along with much of the rest of the country – was occupied by the Germans during the First World War. As the war began drawing to an end in October of 1918, the Germans destroyed buildings as they retreated on the 17th of October.
4th September 1944: The residents of Brussels, Belgium cheer for Belgian and British troops as they enter the city. Brussels was liberated the day before, after more than four years of Nazi occupation.
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was fought between the Allies and the German Empire in the First World War.
Part of the larger Battle of Pilckem Ridge, Passchendaele began on the 31st of July, 1917.
This photograph, taken on that first day, shows German prisoners and British wounded crossing a canal near Boesinghe (Boezinge) in Belgium.
In a photograph dated the 29th of October, 1917, Australian soldiers are seen on the move in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres).
Australia fought alongside Britain and troops from other parts of the British Empire, France and Belgium against the German Empire in a battle that lasted from the end of July until mid-November.
The image’s original information reads as follows:
Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, 29 October 1917. The leading soldier is Gunner James Fulton and the second soldier is Lieutenant Anthony Devine. The men belong to a battery of the 10th Field Artillery Brigade.
From the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
From the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
Soldiers of the 3rd Australian Division at the entrance to the General Staff Office on the 21st of October, 1917. This was during fighting at Ypres, Belgium in the First World War.
The British Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918: Gunners of the Royal Garrison Artillery outside a bomb-proof dug-out at Reninghelst (Reningelst), Belgium. 15th June 1916.
Found in the wreckage X
On the 15th of February, 1961 the plane transporting the entire US figure skating team to the World Championships crashed in Belgium, killing everyone on board.
Two days earlier, national ladies’ champion Laurence Owen, aged sixteen, had been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. There is a common myth that appearing on the cover of the magazine curses athletes, as she is not the only person to have something terrible happen soon afterwards.
The Owen family. X
Owen’s sister Maribel, also a member of the team, and her mother, a coach and former champion herself, were also on the flight.
In addition to the seventy-two people on the plane, a farmer was also killed by flying debris.
The team boards the plane the day before the crash. X
Once news of the crash got out, the Championships, scheduled to be held in Prague, were cancelled to honour the victims.
Two Canadian soldiers, neighbours from back home, meet in Ghent, Belgium on the 8th of November, 1944. The men were from Scarborough in Ontario, Canada.
“A” Company of Britain’s 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers rests in Mons, Belgium on the 22nd of August, 1914.
The following day they would fight in the Battle of Mons.
In Times Gone By... 