Ploegsteert Wood recreated trench system in misty morning

World War One trench with barbed wire, meadow and wood in autumn misty morning, site recreated on former no man’s land  part of the battlefield

(Browse the collection : Hainaut Province stock footage videos, time lapses and cinematic shots)

Ploegsteert village is located to the south-west of the wood, and there are cemeteries and other sites of interest on all sides of, as well as within, the wood. There were no major set-piece battles in this area, and Ploegsteert remained in British possession during the major part of the War. Only in 1918 did the Germans take it briefly. 

(WW1 battlefields)

This is Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium. In May 1917 the 38th Australian Infantry Battalion was based in the wood and, according to battalion historian Private Eric Fairey, it was an idyllic spot—it was spring; the sun glinted down through the leaves of the pink chestnuts and copper beeches; the grass was covered with daisies, primroses and buttercups; and the air was filled with the melody of birdsong.

(Anzac Portal)

Later that month, Roland wrote to Vera and described a discovery he’d made while walking in Ploegsteert Wood (known to the Tommies as “Plug Street Wood”). Roland had found “the body of a dead British soldier hidden in the undergrowth a few yards from the path. He must have been shot there during the wood-fighting in the early part of the War.

(Behind their lines)