Sint-Elooi

Not to be confused with Mont-Saint-Éloi.

Sint-Elooi is a small village, about 5 kilometres south of Ypres in the Flemish province of West-Vlaanderen in Belgium. The former municipality is now part of Ypres. Though Sint-Elooi is the Dutch and only official name, the village's French name, St. Eloi, is most commonly used in English due to its role in World War I. The village and the nearby locations of Voormezele and Hollebeke were merged into Zillebeke in 1970 and into Ypres in 1976.

Name

The village takes its name from Saint Eligius (also Eloy or Loye, French: Éloi; c. 588–660) who worked for twenty years to convert the pagan population of Flanders to Christianity.

History

World War I

Map showing the location of Sint-Elooi/St Eloi south of Ypres, as well as the frontline of the Ypres Salient as it was in June 1916.
Plan of the British deep mine at St Eloi, part of the mines placed in the Battle of Messines.

In World War I, like other parts of the Ypres Salient, the village was the site of intense and sustained battles between German and Allied forces.

In the spring of 1915, there was constant underground fighting in the Ypres Salient at Hooge, Hill 60, Railway Wood, Sanctuary Wood, St Eloi and The Bluff which required the deployment of new drafts of tunnellers for several months after the formation of the first eight tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers.[1] The Germans exploded mines under the area known as The Mound just south-east of St Eloi in March 1915.[2] On 14 and 15 March 1915, units of the 27th Division of the British Army participated here in the Action of St Eloi,[3] where the British suffered some 500 casualties. A month later, on 14 April 1915, the Germans fired another mine producing a crater over 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter. Counter-mining activity by the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers began at St Eloi in spring 1915. Much of the mining in this sector was done by the 177th Tunnelling Company and the 172nd Tunnelling Company.[2]

The Battle of St Eloi Craters was fought from 27 March to 16 April 1916. The attack over the soggy terrain was the first major engagement for the 2nd Canadian Division.[4] The battle began with the detonation of six mines beneath German lines on 27 March.[5][2] The British soldiers rose from their positions in the cold mud and attacked, quickly capturing three craters and the third German line. By 16 April, the battle ended with the Germans in control of the battlefield, as they had been at its start.[4] HMCS St. Eloi was later named after the battle.

Mining and counter-mining at St Eloi continued at a pace.[2] In preparation of the Battle of Messines in 1917, the British began a mining offensive against the German lines around Wijtschate. Twenty-six deep mines were eventually dug by Tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers and detonated simultaneously on 7 June 1917, creating 19 large craters. The joint explosion of the mines in the Battle of Messines ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. The largest of these mines was at St Eloi, dug by the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company.[5] The work was begun with a deep shaft named Queen Victoria in the area of Bus House Cemetery, behind a farm-house called Bus House by the British troops (50°48′46.8″N 2°53′13.6″E / 50.813000°N 2.887111°E / 50.813000; 2.887111). From there, the gallery was extended to the area of the mine chamber.[2] It was set 42 metres (138 ft) below ground, at the end of a gallery 408 metres (1,339 ft) long and charged with 95,600 pounds (43,400 kg) of ammonal. Building preparations had started on 16 August 1915, and the mine was completed on 11 June 1916.[6] When the St Eloi deep mine was fired by the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company on 7 June 1917, it destroyed some of the earlier craters from 1916, although a double crater can still be seen.[7] (see image) The successful detonation allowed the capture of the German lines at St Eloi by the British 41st Division.[5]

The wooded ridge along the Ypres-Comines Canal – some 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) east of Sint-Elooi/St Eloi, some 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) south of Hill 60 and about halfway in between Voormezele and Hollebeke – was known by soldiers as The Bluff.

World War II

The area was fought over again during the Second World War.[8] On 27 May 1940, the 17th Brigade of the British 5th Infantry Division stopped the advance of three German divisions at Hill 60, which enabled the British to make a general withdrawal towards St. Eloi, Kemmel and Dikkebus.[9]

Memorials

On a small square in the centre of Sint-Elooi stands the 'Monument to the St Eloi Tunnellers' which was unveiled on 11 November 2001. The brick plinth bears transparent plaques with details of the mining activities by 172nd Tunnelling Company and an extract from the poem Trenches: St Eloi by the war poet T.E. Hulme (1883–1917). There is a flagpole with the British flag next to it, and in 2003 an artillery gun was added to the memorial.[10]

Popular culture

Gallery

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Eloi (Ypres).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Barton, Doyle & Vandewalle 2004, p. 165.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Holt & Holt 2014, p. 248.
  3. ↑ "Action of St. Eloi". theactionofsteloi1915.com. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  4. 1 2 Battle of St Eloi Craters, access date 19 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "St Eloi Craters". firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  6. ↑ Turner, Messines 1917 (2010), p. 44.
  7. ↑ Photo gallery: Battle of Messines Ridge, access date 16 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Ellis 1954, p. 196.
  9. ↑ Ellis 1954, p. 202.
  10. ↑ Holt & Holt 2014, p. 184.

References

  • Barton, Peter; Doyle, Peter; Vandewalle, Johan (2004). Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers' War 1914−1918. Staplehurst: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-237-8. 
  • Ellis, Major L. F. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO 1954]. Butler, J. R. M., ed. The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Naval & Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. Retrieved 29 June 2015. 
  • Holt, Tonie; Holt, Valmai (2014) [1997]. Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient & Passchendaele. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-551-9. 

Further reading

  • Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-89839-185-7. 
  • Turner, Alexander (2010). Messines 1917: The Zenith of Siege Warfare. Campaign Series. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-845-7. Retrieved 19 April 2015. 

Coordinates: 50°48′36″N 2°53′31″E / 50.810°N 2.892°E / 50.810; 2.892

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.