TANK MEMORIAL
YPRES SALIENT
"FROM MUD, THROUGH BLOOD TO THE GREEN FIELDS BEYOND"
THIS MEMORIAL COMMEMORATES THE TANK CORPS
AND FORMER HEAVY BRANCH MACHINE GUN CORPS TANK CREWMEN,
WHO FOUGHT AND FELL IN THE YPRES SALIENT DURING THE GREAT WAR.
THEIR ASSAULTS WERE CARRIED OUT IN ATROCIOUS CONDITIONS.
THESE BRAVE MEN FOUGHT AN EQUALLY BRAVE, RESILIENT AND WELL-ENTRENCHED ENEMY
AS WELL AS THE VERY BATTLEFIELD ITSELF.
ON 9 OCTOBER 1917, EIGHT TANKS DEPLOYED INTO THIS VILLAGE;
ALL EITHER SANK DEEP INTO THE MUD OR WERE DESTROYED
WITH MANY CREWMEN BEING KILLED AND WOUNDED.
TANK D29 DAMON II SLIPPED INTO A DEEP SHELL CRATER
AND WAS KNOCKED OUT ON THIS CROSS ROADS.
LATER IT WAS PLACED AS A MONUMENT AT THE SITE
WHERE THIS TANK MEMORIAL STANDS TODAY.
9 OCTOBER 1917 WAS THE LAST ATTEMPT TO DEPLOY TANKS EN MASSE
INTO THE QUAGMIRE OF THE SALIENT.
AS FAR AS THE CREWS WERE CONCERNED, THE BATTLEFIELD HAD ACQUIRED A NEW NAME:
" THE CEMETERY OF THE TANKS "
MUCH OF THE SALIENT WAS CAPTURED DURING THE 3rd BATTLE OF YPRES.
HOWEVER, THE BRITISH WERE UNABLE TO HOLD THEIR GAIN AND POELCAPELLE
WOULD CHANGE HANDS SEVERAL TIMES UNTIL IT'S FINAL CAPTURE
BY BELGIAN TROOPS DURING THE ALLIED ADVANCE OF 1918.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
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The Tank Memorial Ypres Salient
commemorates and remembers;
the TANK CORPS & the former HEAVY BRANCH MACHINE GUN CORPS 243 tank crewmen who fought and fell in the Ypres Salient during the Great War. The Village of Poelkapelle hosts the Tank Memorial on behalf of the Ypres Salient and was just one of the many battlefields where infantry battles supported by armour raged during the 3rd Battle of Ypres in 1917.
The Tank Memorial has been privately sponsored with the plot of land being kindly offered on behalf of the Flemish Government in conjunction with the Mayor's Office of Langemark-Poelkapelle in perpetuity. The Memorial Register Book will list and detail all 243 tank soldiers buried or commemorated in the Ypres Salient. A Visitors Book will also be available. A walk on plan of the fighting compartment of a MK 4 tank showing all crew positions will be included in the Memorial Enclosure floor area. An original MK4 tank sponson gunners armoured observation plate from a Poelcapelle tank will be attached to the Memorial structure for permanent display. Throughout the summer months, the flags of Belgium and Great Britain will be flown side by side. The Tank Corps flag will be flown on special dates and at all future ceremonies.
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D Battalion Tank Corps October 1917
The following report was written by D G Brown of D Battalion Tank Corps immediately after the failed 9th October Poelcapelle assault:
Up on the Poelcapelle - St Julien Road, the tanks that had been knocked out were still there blocking the road. They had to be removed to allow free movement of supplies and perhaps the use of more tanks....
A party under the Chief Engineer of the 1st Tank Brigade began the work at once. It had to be done at night and then under conditions of extreme danger, for the Germans knew perfectly well what was happening and shelled the road ferociously. One by one the wrecked tanks, filled with not only their own dead but with the bodies of infantrymen who when wounded, had crawled in from that tormented street to die, were blown up by heavy charges of gun cotton. Within a week, the ghastly road was clear again, except for the human debris which always accumulated there;
The incredible post war story of the
D Battalion tank
D29 Damon II.
This tank was commanded throughout it's final action by the late Major J A Coghlan MC, then Lt (Acting) Capt J A Coghlan during this period.
This last tank action would create a huge legend in it's own right that nobody could foresee and as we read here today, the legend that is Damon II and it's long gone tank crew still continues to grow!
Above left;
The knocked out Damon II with the newly built "Cafe de Zwaan" immediately behind the shattered tank in the village of Poelcapelle.
*The village today is spelt Poelkapelle.
The cafe today, stands apposite the Tank Memorial complete with it's outside wall mounted photograph board, displaying the above photo's.
This photo was taken immediately after the war when the village was rebuilt around
the tank itself.
Above right;
Damon II hauled from it's muddy grave and installed as a War Memorial not 30 yards away from where it had laid stuck fast in the flanders fields mud for so long.
Above left;
Capt J A Coghlan MC.
Above right;
The medal group of the late Major J A Coghlan MC includes the Military Cross and a Mention In Dispatches bronze oak leaf.
*He would win his MC in 1918 and would survive the war with the rank of Major.
The Tank Memorial Ypres Salient today, stands on the very location where Damon II stood for so long as a Village War Memorial after it was hauled from the mud at the end of the Great War. The tank then stood here until the Germans removed it for their own war effort in 1941.
Recent information has come to light, revealing that several of D 29's tank crewmen MAY still lay unrecovered at the site of the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient today.
Please see page 1 notice board for updates and the below evidence.
This new information has become available, courtosy of Susan Tall.
Susan Tall and Betty Sunley are the authors of Kenilworth & the Great War
( A tribute to the fallen ) and it was Susan who supplied us with this new information which I post below. Thank you Susan, it is much appreciated!
The above left and right paragraph appear in Susan and Betty's book along with the below right CWGC listing. The below left news paper cutting is from the Coventry Herald
dated 19 October 1917 and reports on Dudly White's death on the 9th October. It also contains the letter written to the father of Dudly White by the D 29 Damon II Tank Commander Lt ( Acting Capt ) J A Coghlan.
The Tank Memorial committee believe Cpl Dudly White may PROBABLY still rest unrecovered at the site of the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient and we also believe the other 2 killed crewmen ( Williams & Hiscox ) possibly still lay alongside him today. We may never know however, Cpl White's last known official burial as confirmed by the tank commanders letter, was alongside his wrecked tank on the site of the Poelkapelle cross roads today. It also makes sense that the other 2 KIA crewmen from that tank were buried at the same time along with Cpl White.
All 3 missing crewmen appear on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing today.
The Road into Poelcapelle immediately after the war. The wreckage of D32 DOP DOCTOR & D24 DEUCE OF DIAMONDS still litter the roadside.
The same location on the Road into Poelkapelle today!
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Captain Clement Robertson VC
&
Pte Cyril Sheldon Allen DCM.
Above: Captain Clement Robertson VC.
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) attached A Batt Tank Corps.
Killed in Action on October 4th 1917 near the Hamlet of De Reutel aged 28.
His posthumous VC was the the first and 1 of 4 VC's awarded to the Tank Corps in the Great War. He is buried at Oxford Road CWGC.
*His VC Citation will be displayed in the Tank Memorial Register Book along with
Pte Cyril Allen's DCM Citation.
Above:
Extracts from the letter Cyril himself sent to Clement's mother on his death.
( Curtosy of the Robertson and Allen family )
Above:
Clement's VC award was posthumous so he never saw it. The family of Captain Robertson, brought his actual medal back to Clements battlefield and grave. The second photo shows Ian Robertson, Great Nephew and John Allen, Grandson visiting the very site of their releatives VC & DCM action site. The location is known as Robertson's bridge today. Both of these men walked side by side along the very same route, just as their relatives did all those years ago. They and their families then stood together to reflect at this very special location. Captain Robertsons VC and Pte Cyril Allens DCM not only returned to the very location where they were won, Victoria Cross and Distinguished Conduct Medal would then be carried into Oxford Road CWGC where Captain Clement Robertson VC lays today. His VC would be placed on top of headstone and Pte Allens DCM would be placed in front. This is Remembrance and Commemoration of the highest order.
Pte Cyril Sheldon Allen DCM
Above: Pte Cyril Allen DCM on Norton motor cycle.
He has no known grave and is commemorated
on the Louverval Memorial to the Missing at Cambrai.
Above:
Cyril's medals and badges etc today.
Above:
Extract from death letter sent to Cyril's mother revealing
details of his death. The letter was written by
Gnr Hensman from Cyril's tank section at Cambrai.
( Curtosy of the Allen family )
Above;
The Last Post Association buglers and the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient piper Eric Remy, escort Cyril's Grandson John Allen and the display case containing Cyril's DCM, campaign medals and cap badge.
Pte Allen would win his DCM for his part in the same action and would be KIA 7 weeks later during the Battle of Cambrai. He has no known grave and his name is recorded on the Louverval Memorial to the Missing just outside Cambrai.
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F41 FRAY BENTOS
GALIPOLLI FARM
The damaged tank had remained in action for over 60 hours in the middle of
No Mans Land as a forward pillbox. All of the crew were either dead or injured.
Constant enemy assaults had reduced the tank to a shattered wreck. It had even been shot up by the British believing it had been captured.
They had done the best they could and only now did Capt Richardson, give the order to leave the wrecked tank.
F41 Fray Bentos.
Galipolli Farm Ypres Salient 22/8/1917.
2 MC's, 2 DCM's and 4 MM's awarded to a single tank crew
would ensure a Tank Corps legend is born!
Above;
Capt Richardson MC, CdG.
Above right;
The young Lt Richardson and bride.
Capt Richardson MC, CdG with palm medal group.
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The following photographs should hopefully reveal why this tank memorial was so badly needed.
By the end of 1917, the Ypres Salient was littered with tank wrecks and was known by many as
"THE CEMETERY OF THE TANKS".
Today the tank wrecks are long gone, but on the old battlefields and around the cemeteries, the poppies still blow...
When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow,
we gave our today.
