Sunrise over recreated WWI trench system at Ploegsteert Wood

Sunrise over World War One trench with barbed wire at Plugstreet battlefield , video shot in countryside of Warneton and Ploegsteert

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

South of the city of Ypres in Belgium, a large area of woodland was swallowed up in the fighting of 1914. For the next four years, the British and Commonwealth forces held the line in and around Ploegsteert Wood – “Plugstreet Wood” to the British Tommy.

(Old Front Line)

There were no major battles fought here, although the Battle of Messines will loom large in our narrative throughout, and the wood itself remained in British hands for much of the war, but every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, men from both sides fought and died in the trenches and dressing stations within and surrounding the wood.

(The Big Note)

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)