After the bomb attack on the first IJzer Tower, opinions differed. Some wanted to leave the debris as it was, as a permanent indictment. Others wanted a much huger tower as a proof of Flander’s newfound vitality. A compromise was found. Robert Van Averbeke – one of the architects who drew up the first tower – was asked to draw the plans for a new tower, with the same shape of the first one, but 85 metres high.
In 1952, the first stone was laid. A fund-raising campaign was organised and the new Crypt was inaugurated in 1958, the Tower itself in 1965.
On the new Tower’s walls, the first tower’s slogan was repeated, in the four languages of the soldiers who fought in the Westhoek: ‘NO MORE WAR’.