If you want to follow the footsteps of the 15th Battalion CEF, this page will help you plan your visit. Of course, where you go and what you see depends on your interests, the time you have, your budget and how you are travelling. It will be very difficult to see many of the WW 1 sites unless you have a vehicle.
Visit the Canada Remembers Guide to see itineraries for both WW 1 and WW 2. These itineraries do not cover the 15th Battalion CEF combat areas. If you want to concentrate your visit on WW 1 and the 15th Battalion in particular we recommend that you spend a few days in each of Ypres, Belgium and Arras, France and use each of these cities as a base to visit nearby sites. It’s a 1 – 1½ hour drive from Ypres to Arras.
We strongly recommend that you take a tablet or laptop with internet access. A phone doesn’t have a large enough screen.
Please contact the Project Team if you are going to the WW 1 battlefields. We may ask you to take particular photos or add a cemetery card. As well, we can help you get a supply of paper Canadian flags which you can use to demonstrate “our guys” are not forgotten.
The bullet points below are laid out in a logical driving sequence. The links to the memorials erected by the 15th Battalion Memorial Project will take you to a page which will give you precise location information together with some historical context. The links to the various cemeteries will take you to a page that lists all of the known Highlanders buried there and also gives you detailed location instructions.
Ypres
Though the Dutch name Ieper is the official one, the city’s French name Ypres is most commonly used in English. The city is a 3 – 3½ hour drive from Amsterdam and 3¼ – 3¾ hours from Paris. Book a hotel close to the main square where there are many restaurants and you can walk to the Menin Gate.
You might like to stay close to the location of the gas attack in 1915: Bed and Breakfast accommodation in Ypres: Varlet Farm. It’s only a 20 minute drive from Varlet Farm to Ypres. Members of the Project Team have stayed here for many years.
We have created a map showing all of the locations listed below. The map symbols show which locations should be visited in each day.
One day tour
- 15th Battalion Saint Julien Memorial is in the village of Sint-Juliaan. It’s a 15 minute drive from Ypres.
- A two minute drive down the road will take you to the St. Julien Canadian Memorial – The Brooding Soldier which commemorates the Second Battle of Ypres – the second gas attack. Spend at least 30 minutes taking in this very impressive and famous memorial.
- Less than a kilometre to the East of the Brooding Soldier is the “Death Mill” – the Steenakkermolen – Totenmühle. This was the site of the 15th Battalion’s Advance Headquarters and Close Support and the location at which Major William Marshall won the DSO for his actions during the gas attack on 24 April 1915. (Battle of Second Ypres.)
- A short walk down the road is the 15th Battalion Gravenstafel Ridge Memorial. This Ridge marks the second line of defence that the 15th Battalion fell back to during the gas attack. As you stand facing the Memorial, you can see the right hand side of the 15th Battalion trenches at the start of the gas attack.
- A five minute drive away is Poelcapelle British Cemetery in which 4 men from the 15th Battalion rest.
- Langemark German Cemetery – a UNESCO World Heritage site – is a seven minute drive away. Here are buried the remains of more than 44,000 German soldiers. Directions are here. Spend at least 45 minutes here to appreciate the magnitude of what you are seeing.
- Return to the main square in Ypres and visit the In Flanders Fields museum which is in the Cloth Hall on Market Square. Spend 1½ – 2 hours here.
- After supper walk to the Menin Gate and attend the Last Post daily tribute to the fallen.
Two day tour
- It’s a 15 minute drive From Ypres to Tyne Cot Cemetery in which 3 of our men rest. This is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the world! There are 11,965 graves, of which 8,369 are unnamed. The bunkers which still stand in various parts of the cemetery were part of a fortified position of the German Flandern I Stellung, which played an important tactical role during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Spend at least one hour here.
- A five minute drive will take you to the Passchendaele Canadian memorial in the town of Passendale (as it is now called.) Spend 15 minutes.
- A seven minute drive will take you to the Passchendaele Museum. This excellent museum warrants spending at least 1½ – 2 hours.
- The Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood) Canadian National Memorial is a 10 minute drive from the Passchendaele Museum. Spend 15 minutes.
- You might also want to visit the reconstructed trenches at the Sanctuary Wood Museum a three minute walk down the road. Stay about an hour.
- Visit the 15th Battalion Observatory Ridge Memorial which is 10 minutes away. From here you can see Mont Sorrel.
- Only 5 minutes away is the 15th Battalion Hill 60 Memorial. – the location where LCol Marshal was shot by a sniper.
- A 3 km drive takes you to Railway Dugouts Cemetery in which 40 men from the 15th Battalion rest.
- If you have time, take the 25 – 30 minute drive to Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery where LCol Marshall is buried. Spend 20 minutes here. Then 25 minutes back to Ypres.
- Finally, return to visit St. George’s Memorial Church near the Market Square in Ypres.
Three day tour
This day is basically a straight run route down to Ploegsteert and loop back through Poperinghe
- St -Eloi craters. Click HERE to see location.
- Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery has a number of 15th burials besides the one known burial. They are all Unknowns of the 15th Bn which is why they don’t show on the cemetery registers. A number of them were misidentified and the Project Team had the CWGC correct their headstones.
- Mesen (Messines -Belgium’s smallest town) is on the way to Hill 63 where the 15th Bn did trench tours in late 1915. Not too much to see other than the position but Lt FM Gibson was KIA there.
- The dead from those tours are in La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery which commemorates 16 named Highlanders.
- Ploegsteert memorial / cemetery. No Highlanders rest here but the Memorial is worth seeing.
- Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery
- Red Lodge was was a rear area HQ the 15th Bn occupied in late 1915
- Piggeries was where the Battalion mascot Bruno was found.
- Ploegsteert Wood Military Cemetery No Highlanders rest here.
- Lancashire Cottage Cemetery is the resting place of two identified Highlanders
- If you didn’t have time on Day 2, you should visit Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery resting place of LCol WR Marshall and other notable Highlanders. Also visit the French Monument at Mount Kemmel, and Talbot House Poperinge a beautifully restored guest house.
Arras
This city is a 1 – 1½ hour drive from Paris and 2 – 2½ hours from Brussels. Stay near the cobbled Place des Héros which has buildings with Flemish facades, including the Town Hall and belfry.
We have created a map showing all of the locations listed below. The map symbols show which locations should be visited in each day.
One day tour
- The National Necropolis of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette is the biggest French military cemetery and the final resting place of 42,000 French soldiers who died during the First World War on the battlefields of Artois and Flanders. Only a 25 minute drive from Arras, the high point of the hump-backed ridge stands 165 metres high and – with Vimy Ridge – utterly dominates the otherwise flat Douai plain and the town of Arras. Spend at least an hour.
- The Canadian National Vimy Memorial & Visitor Education Centre is 15 minutes away. This memorial commemorates 205 Highlanders who have no known grave. Plan on spending at least 4 hours if you take the recommended tour of the tunnels.
- La Targette British Cemetery is only a 10 minute drive away from Vimy Ridge. It is the resting place of two Highlanders and the cemetery from which the “unknown soldier” was taken to rest in Ottawa.
- Visit the ruins of the Abbe Mont St Eloi – a 10 minute drive away. When WW1 began, the towers were used by French troops to observe German positions on Lorette Spur and Vimy Ridge.
- Maison Blanche German Military Cemetery is a 10 minute drive from Mont St Eloi. It is the largest German Military Cemetery in France with 44,533 burials. Another UNESCO World Heritage site. Spend at least 45 minutes here.
- Nine Elms Military Cemetery, where 75 Highlanders rest, is only 10 minutes away. This was the second location of the Vimy Cross in our museum.
- A 5 minute drive from Nine Elms Cemetery will take you to the town of Écurie where you find the 15th Battalion Memorial for Vimy Ridge in the shape of the original cross. Spend 15 minutes.
- Drive 20 minutes to see the 15th Battalion Hill 70 Memorial.
- A five minute drive will take you to the famous Hill 70 Memorial and the nearby Loos British Cemetery in which a single Highlander rests.
2 day tour
- 30 minutes South East of Arras is the 15th Battalion Crow’s Nest Memorial. The best location from which to view the Crow’s Nest and to appreciate its strategic position is at Upton Wood Cemetery looking towards our memorial. Pte Hellinger is the only15th Battalion man buried in Upton Wood cemetery.
- In the Dominion Cemetery lie 47 Highlanders. It’s only a 5 minute drive from the Crow’s Nest.
- A 15 minute drive will take you to the 15th Battalion Canal du Nord Memorial in Marquion
- The Quarry Cemetery is the resting place of 10 Highlanders. This must see beautiful cemetery is only 2 minutes drive from the Memorial.
- Vis-en-Artois Cemetery is 15 minutes from Marquion. Three Highlanders rest here.
- The Wellington Caves are in Arras. Allow 1 ½ hours.
3 day tour
The features listed below are in the Somme battlefield area close to the A1 Route that starts in Paris and runs close to Arras. For this reason you may wish to visit these locations on your way to or from Paris.
- Courcelette Canadian Memorial, 15th Battalion Thiepval Ridge Memorial , Courcelette British Cemetery in which 24 Highlanders lie, and Regina Trench Cemetery (three Highlanders)
- Beaumont Hamel, Newfoundland memorial. Stay at least 1½ hours.)
- Ulster Tower. Map reference is HERE.
- The Thiepval Memorial commemorates “the Missing of the Somme”: more than 72,000 British and South African soldiers who were killed in the region between 1915 and 1918 but have no known grave. It also serves as a monument to the alliance of France and the British Empire.
- Mouquet farm. Battle of Pozières Ridge (now referred to as “Fighting for Mouquet Farm”) is one of the battle honours awarded to the 15th Battalion.
- Pozières British Cemetery (2 Highlanders)
- La Boisselle Locknagar crater Map location is HERE.