{"id":2723,"date":"2009-03-03T23:11:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-03T12:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2009-03-03T23:11:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-03T12:11:25","slug":"briefing-room-no3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=2723","title":{"rendered":"Briefing Room No.3"},"content":{"rendered":"

While visiting the Western Front in the Spring of 2008 FFFAIF member Stuart Curry met Johan Vandewalle<\/span>. Here is the first part of Stuart’s story\u00a0about his time spent on the Battlefields with Johan.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Johan Vandewalle owns a small caf\u00e9 called Anzac Rest which is situated at the western tip of Polygon Wood. I was lucky enough to meet him one day at his bar and he was overwhelmed with the amount of research information I had on my family diggers and offered to show me around the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"0532\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Johan is known locally and internationally as the ‘dugout king of Belgium’. From the books he has written to the documentaries he appears in there appears to be nothing he does not know about the tunnellers of World War One.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"0533\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Looking down into Vampire Dugout, a project of Johan’s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With my interest in Australian Field Artillery the first place we visited was a position on the reverse slope of Westhoek Ridge.<\/p>\n

\"0528\"<\/a>Photo: View from Westhoek Ridge towards the village.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was from this position that the 14th<\/sup> Machine Gun Company was engaged in the Battle of Menin Road on 20 September 1917, \u00a0helping the 2nd<\/sup> Division with their creeping barrage. During the morning of the Battle, starting at 5.40a.m., 16 guns fired 140,000 rounds towards the German lines in just 10 minutes. The diagram below shows the area in which the 14th<\/sup> machine Gun Company concentrated its fire power during the lead up to the Battle for Menin Road.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"menin-road-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0From our position on the Westhoek Ridge, where E Battery was located, we could see across the fields, which were once the battlefields, towards a red roof house in the distance, near the village of Westhoek in Zonnebeke<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was here that Johan was involved in the discovery and exhumation of what was to become known as the Zonnebeke Five<\/em>.\u00a0 The five were Australian Diggers who had paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fighting near \u00a0Polygon Wood\u00a0 on 30 Spetember 1917 and had been buried by their mates, lying undisturbed for 91 years.<\/p>\n

\"0529\"<\/a>Photo: The resurfaced section of the road where the Zonnebeke Five were discovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0You can read the full story of the Zonnebeke Five on Johan’s website, www.polygonwood.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Johan then took me to British New Butte Cemetery to show me their graves. I shook his hand and thanked him for helping the Diggers finally rest in peace.<\/p>\n

\"0530\"<\/a>Photo: Johan Vandewalle at the graves of the Zonnebeke Five.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*****<\/p>\n

You can read more about The Zonnebeke Five on the FFFAIF wwebsite by clicking on the following links:<\/span><\/p>\n