Sanctuary Wood Museum

For as long as any battlefield tour guide to the Ypres Salient can remember, there has always been a museum at the location known as Sanctuary Wood. Also known as Hill 62, from its height in metres above sea level, this is where a memorial to the Canadian troops is located, along with preserved original Allied trenches.

Heading east out of Ypres town centre, it is less than a 10-minute drive to reach Hill 62, as most people today refer to it, where a whole series of interesting things are waiting for the military enthusiast to see.

What was it?

On reaching it, the first thing to understand is that this was the front-line trench system for the Allies facing the German lines, just across the road at Bellewaerde Ridge. It was part of the forward edge of the perimeter bulging eastwards to hold the Germans back and prevent them from capturing Ypres. The site is heavily wooded today, but between 1914 and 1918 the whole area was blasted away. The thick canopy of the trees leaves the ground bare in places, so the site looks pretty much as it would have during the war.

Sanctuary Wood is so-called because in October 1914 it was a quiet part of the line where troops could rest. All that changed only a month later when the Germans started to shell the area. Over the next four years, troops of many nationalities and different regiments served in this part of the front line. Close by and reachable by walking is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, where over 600 soldiers are buried. The Canadian memorial at Mount Sorrel, also called Tor Top, can also be reached from the Sanctuary Wood Museum.

What is there to see?

The museum itself is a fascinating place, full of amazing items that military enthusiasts will enjoy, and first-time visitors cannot believe. It is a private museum, and the displays are not laid out in an orderly fashion. This is the appeal of the displays in the cabinets, which give the impression of being someone’s very large, private collection of uniforms, medals, weapons, photographs, personal items, and a wealth of all the oddities picked up from the battlefield that once surrounded the area. There are no interactive computer screens here but rather loading original special 3D photographs from the period into viewing cabinets.

Visitors wander at will as each cabinet reveals its own contents with basic descriptive information on the cards. Headdresses of every possible type, from German leather Pickelhaub to silver versions worn by officers, busbies worn by Hussars, and soft field caps, are displayed in cabinets which would delight collectors. Bayonets, rifles, pistols, weapons, and hand grenades of all types are in such numbers, again, collectors will be envious.

An outdoor experience

The museum is not big, but it packs a lot in and has a relaxed, friendly charm about it, which conceals the trauma of the war that unfolded here. Having seen the display inside, visitors follow the route outside to the area behind the building, where they find themselves standing on the actual battlefield at Hill 62 and surrounded by the original trenches, looking as though they have just been deserted by the troops on being told the war is over. Even after more than 100 years, they still appear eerily still and silent. This is where men fought and died, and many are buried in the nearby cemeteries, where a visit to them completes the history.

Going outside, the first thing to do when walking around the trenches is to orientate yourself so that you are facing towards the Menin Road, which was the area of no-man’s-land between the opposing trenches. You can enter the trenches and walk through them or around them to gain an insight into life there. It would have been filthy, vermin-infested with rats and lice, cold in the winter, and boiling in the summer. When it rained everything would have been caked in mud, just to add to the misery. Dotted around the earthworks are picket stakes which once held the barbed wire in place, and corrugated iron sheeting which revetted the sides of the trenches. These are not recreated replicas, but the real thing, which makes you wonder how men lived under such conditions. Yet they did, year after year. The smell would have been indescribable.

Here and there around the site, piles of expended shells have been stacked, collected from the battlefield and representing only a fraction of the barrage to which these trenches were subjected. Piles of shrapnel and pieces of exploded larger calibre shells, punctuate the routes between the trenches, and large items such as trench mortars and Livens gas projectors stand ready to be looked over. All came from the battlefield, which, from 1915, was the scene of poison gas attacks and the first attacks with flamethrowers by the Germans. There is a secret tunnel, actually a large concrete feature, which visitors can enter and walk a stretch in complete darkness, the closest anyone will ever get to experiencing something of what it was like.

More than just a museum

The Sanctuary Wood Museum is as far removed from the well-ordered, neatly regimented displays of the larger museums in the area, as can be imagined. Those have their place, but for down-to-earth real history, there are not many places to equal this site. It evokes memories and the visitor is surrounded by history, and you will find yourself staying longer than you thought; at least two hours if not more. You will not be disappointed by visiting it, but you will be if you decide to give it a miss. The museum does not appear to have its own website, but type in the name as a search and plenty of information comes up, such as Wikipedia. Comments posted on the Trip Adviser site are mixed, but mostly they are positive and say how much they enjoyed the visit.