Informationboard Building at the Front 14-18

Although the fighting was limited in Flanders in 1916, there was still a lot of movement and activity behind the German Lines. From 1916, the Germans start building a proper defence network. Offensive-targeted thinking was traded in for consolidating the acquired land. Speciale Pioniere, or sappers, were charged with the development of successive lines of defence. In the realisation of these lines many constructions and shelters were built.

For the construction, the supply of troops and material was, of course, an important requirement. Building materials, including wood, iron, cement and sand bags, were sourced from anywhere. This was done mainly through a complex network of railways, as many of the narrow rural dirt roads were unable to handle the heavy traffic. Via this railway line, tonnes of equipment was transported from the port of Roeselare to the front area. At the station of Moorslede and south of Passchendaele, so-called marshalling yards were build to load the material into smaller means of transport, such as narrow-gauge vehicles.

A depot and barracks were also built on this site. Via a narrow-gauge, the deport was connected to an even larger Pionierpark between Zonnebeke and Beselare, ‘In de Ster’. The route runned in an arc around the Broodseinde intersection. Until mid-1917, enormous amounts of material passed this crossing. Because of the British offensive, the completion of the front lines was halted. The pioneer parks were increasingly under fire and destroyed along with the landscape.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Informatiebord