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Tens of thousands of British soldiers passed through the
Menin Gate in Ypres on their way to the front, which for so
many thousands would become their grave. The official name
of what in popular speech is called the Menin Gate, is "Menin
Gate Memorial to the Missing". It was inaugurated on
24 July 1927.
The inscription on the east side reads : To the Armies of
the British Empire who stood here from 1914 to 1918 and to
those of their dead who have no known grave.
The Menin Gate was built in classical style, like a Roman
triumphal arch. Beyond the Gate was the "Ypres Salient",
the bow-shaped frontline round Ypres, from Steenstrate, over
Langemark-Poelkapelle, Zonnebeke, the West-Flemish hills,
down to Armentières (France). The German troops reached
the Salient in October 1914, intending to break through towards
the North-French coastline. Ypres, the French-British bastion,
turned out to become an insurmountable obstacle.
Almost 54,900 names of missing officers and men of the British
Commonwealth are engraved on the panels. And this is only
a part of the total number of the missing, for another 35,000
names are on the walls of Tyne Cot Cemetery (Zonnebeke-Passendale),
fallen after 15 August 1917.
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Since 1928 the Last Post - the tattoo or 'lights out' of
the British army - has been sounded every evening under the
Menin Gate vaults by the buglers of the Ypres Fire Brigade.
A ceremony that forms an inseparable part of Ypres town life.
More information can be obtained at the Last
Post Association.
Several other ceremonies take place under the Menin Gate
vaults too, such as for instance the annual Anzac-day on 25
April.
Calendar Last
Post.
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