Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on InRangeTV.
I am here today in the reconstructed, or remains,
reinforced remains, of a World War 1 Belgian bunker and this is actually right on the River Yser.
I am at the forward-most point, or the northern-most point, of the trench lines in World War 1.
This is where the Belgian lines and the German lines together
ended against ... the flooded fields of Flanders and ultimately the ocean.
So, we're going to take a look at some of the fortifications here.
In fact, I think what we're going to do is head from here and go straight over
to the German bunker on the opposing side,
and then we'll take a quick walk through no-man's land to the Belgian lines,
and then give you a little bit of a tour of the Belgian fortifications here.
So this is the inside of the German bunker at the far extent
of the Belgian front lines on the River Yser.
All right, we are going to climb out of this bunker. We're going to head up to the actual firing ports overlooking the Belgian positions.
This is what remains of the German bunker here at the very end of the line.
Right down there, that's the Belgian position.
Plate over the firing port. You can see some of the original metal work that this was cast around.
Alright, we're gonna do some redubbing voice-over here, because the wind noise was just abhorrent.
One really cool thing about this bunker is you can see some of the ad hoc manufacturer.
These real pieces of railroad track sticking out of the roof are what was actually used to build the original bunker.
They poured concrete over pieces of salvaged railroad track that they pulled up.
You can see some of the casting lines as well, around here on the outside of the bunker.
And, man, just the view from the front of this thing. It's quite the interesting and imposing structure.
All right, now we can see some more really cool stuff by looking
more closely at the construction of the bunker.
Down here at the base you can see
it was actually built using these preformed concrete construction blocks.
And that would have been the very first elements of the bunker that were put up, aside from it being dug into the ground.
Then, as the war progressed, they started casting concrete.
In fact, if we look inside the window here, you can see these sort of round lump sort of indentations,
that is where concrete was poured around sandbags. So, this started as a low bunker reinforced with sandbags,
then concrete poured around it. And it was under fire for literally years. That's a bullet.
There's another another bullet still stuck in the concrete right over here. Right there.
The whole thing is obviously covered in pock marks, but a few of the actual projectiles remain.
And just looking at some of the steel components, like this beam, the thing has been
absolutely chewed up by gunfire over years.
This was literally ... the head of, you know, the tip of the German front lines
... in this part of Belgium.
Now let's go ahead and turn around and let's take a literal walk through no-man's land.
Because looking down here, we have 50 or 100 yards of terrain to cross
and then we're going to be in the Belgian lines.
This little pillar that you see here in front of us, this is actually one of a series of memorials or monuments
that were put up by the Belgian Government ... these pillars denote the final line of German advance.
The furthest that the Germans were able to advance.
Belgium was not fully conquered during the war ...
Now, there are a couple of original period pictures. We're gonna freeze frame this for a minute so you can get a better look at it.
This is looking at that German fort that we were just in. And if you look closely you can recognize it,
especially those building blocks at the bottom.
All right, and now let's take a look inside the Belgian trench, the so-called 'Trench of Death'.
This originally would have been sandwiched between the river and flooded plains,
on the side, right over here.
During the war this position couldn't have been easily outflanked because of that deliberate flooding.
So, it was a little more secure than it looks today. Also, this whole site is a reconstructed
Belgian War Museum. So that's why the ... sandbags here are made out of concrete.
This whole site was reconstructed by the Belgian military so that it would last.
Now, I think we can head down out of the wind and go back to the original audio.
Come down inside. The floor here is a couple of feet higher than it originally would have been.
Front observation point.
So this was originally called the 'Trench of Death', although
the name is a little more frightening than well, I hate to say, more frightening than the reality.
So these would have been, or are, firing ports on top and then the larger square holes on the bottom are grenade ports.
Now, you come down into the inside of the bunker.
Over here are the original firing ports.
And this was a hole for grenades.
You could drop a grenade down there and it would roll into the main 'Mousetrap' courtyard in front,
and you couldn't take return fire through those holes.
Steel roof.
And then this [goes] back into the main trench line.
That, is that.
Secondary bunker back here, everything in these trench systems were reinforcing.
So, again these trench floors are a couple feet higher than they originally were...
So, the bunkers here, the doorways would have been deep enough to walk into.
And, of course, you can see these straight trenches have zig zags in them here,
so that you do not have a continuous line of fire down the trench, in case...
The bunkers have firing ports ... right down there, to allow fire down the trench line
in the direction of where the Germans would be coming should they take the trench.
Now just behind the front line, there is a series of reinforcing bunkers.
Inside there ... provide logistical support ... so in case that main front trench...
This is public so there are other people wandering around.
Now, looking up over the top of this trench. Right there,
you can see the long trench line that we were just in. So, up here you have
observation over that, and if the Germans do take it
they're at least going to have to keep their heads down because, in addition, we have a couple of
machine-gun emplacements that were located up here. So we're getting up on a little bit higher ground here.
... And again, we have a good view over that front trench line and here is one of the little
pockets where they had a backup Belgian Maxim machine gun.
Climb on in here, and give me just a moment to get in, and...
This is the firing port for a Belgian Maxim. So you can see that if the Germans overran that front trench,
they would be subject to a devastating fusillade of machine-gun fire through that port,
and a couple others just like it up here.
And there's ... an original picture of the guys who maintained this particular position.
You can see the Maxim gun in the back there and their firing port.
We continue here. There's a second one.
There we go, this one is slightly more intact.
So this is where there would have been a Belgian Maxim gun. You can see the T-shaped marking in the concrete pad.
That's for a fortress mount for the gun, tripod for the gunner.
And then, this is more like what the firing port would have looked like.
A small firing port back here,
but it extends into this big open funnel to
allow coverage over the entire trench line.
But very hard to shoot back into.
Alright, here are a couple more emplacements.
This one, in particular, has a really nicely preserved firing port.
So this is basically a railroad tie that has had observation slits and firing ports cut in them.
The reason for that kind of oblong shape to the firing ports (there's another pair)
is so that they would fit over the barrel jacket on an 1889 Belgian Mauser.
Thank you for watching guys.
I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of ... one tiny
microcosm of the trench lines of World War 1. If you did enjoy this, make sure to share the video with your friends, subscribe and
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