Thank-you for this video. My great uncle David Baker Cooper 34 Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, was killed in this area on 12 October 1917. in 2016 we stayed at the hotel on the Hooge Crater site and laid a wreath at the Menin Gate. I pay tribute to him here. Again, thank-you.

Thank you , Steven for your video of the Hooge Crater. My Grandfather was killed there on the 26th April 1918.. He was Corporal Robert Bruce aged 42, of the 2nd Btn, Durham Light Infantry. Remembered with Honour on the Tyne Cot Memorial. He has no known grave but his death is recorded in the book "The steel of the D.L.I."

My grandfather was Canadian and fought in WW 1 was wounded.. thanks you for keeping there memories alive.. I will have to go and look at your other videos..

These videos are so informative and should be shown in schools. Thank you for showing this giving your time.

Thank you so much for your hard work. Your shares are greatly appreciated. Thanks all the way from Canada. I wish I was able to visit the battlefields where family served and some remain. Keep up the great work.

I love your thoughtful dedication at the end. Many times we know the history from school, and see the remnants of now ancient battles, but many ordinary humans were involved, affected, and it's decent of you to take a moment to leave that as a last thought. Decent in this day and age, at least.

Finally, an explanation for why the high ground is important! In all seriousness, I love your content and I am so glad that folk like you devote themselves to remembrance - so I can remember too. Subscribed

You’ve learned me so much about WW1. Every video is so educational. Thank you, Steven.

Thanks again for another strong Great War docu. Looking at that first b/w picture it is unreal to think of the amount death it came with

It is interesting to think how beautiful it all looks in an eerie kind of way. Not a lake, a crater. etc Great work as usual.

I just want to say thank you for doing these videos and I have greatly appreciated watching all of them and I'm happy to be a subscriber. You have taught me more about World War 1 than any other KZfaq channel.

In 1990 I was 22 and living near in kortrijk cycling racing quite often u would ride down this road and even went to the amusement park there. Now I’m 55 and watching the history of the war reminiscing of those times . During my training rides and races I would visit all these grave sites , what an experience .

Great as always Steve! A prayer to your relative who fought in the war.

Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed it, as I do all your films of the Great War. I have several hundred diaries of this conflict and it fills in a lot of back ground to see these sites. I hope you keep posting them. They are really appreciated.

@Steven Upton... I just want to extend a huge thank you for your videos. I've spent all day watching them and it has really peaked my interest in WW1. All of these sites are so fascinating, and I can't even wrap my head around what the experiences of those soldiers must have been like. They say that "War is Hell," and I can truly believe that after seeing these sites of trench warfare and massive cemeteries. It reminds me a little of Antietam Battlefield, near where I live in the United States, and the amount of life lost in such a small area of land. Thank you for your amazing documentation and commentary!

As a young man, my grandfather lived on a farm outside the tiny community of Grand Junction, Tennessee, USA. He joined the Army and was quickly sent overseas, participating in five major WW1 battles, until he was gassed and shot. He spent the rest of the war in a hospital, where he recuperated and when the war ended, he returned to Grand Junction, where the spent the rest of his life. His journey to/from Europe took him through exciting places like New York City and Paris, so I've always wondered how he managed to return to such a humdrum existence in a farming community. But somebody mentioned that after enduring the horrors of the World War One battles, perhaps going back to his little town in Tennessee was his way of recovering (physically AND mentally) from what he'd endured.

Well done, I appreciate the impartial script and the way in chich you treat the subject matter. May you produce many more. Cheers from Down under.

Though I already knew this because I've watched all your videos, I really appreciated your note with mentioning that when you refer to the British forces, you are also meaning all the contributing colony countries; Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Thank you for your great work!

Thanks so much for posting this video Steven. I haven't seen any of your work for some time now. Great so see your work again. This history is so fun to learn and I'm sure glad and pleased that you are doing such a great job of it. So many gave it all for their countries it is amazing. Just wonderful and hope to see many more. May you always be blessed for the work that you are doing.

Very interesting,and im so glad everything has been left as it was,pictures do tell a story,but actually going to a place brings it home more vividly,thank you for this,as a visitor to menin gate,lochnagar crater,and tyne cot,thiepval and many others,i for one,will never forget 😔

Thank you and looking forward to more. Being a "Yank," I can't help but realize how much Europe has suffered over the past 100 years and especially in the last two World Wars. I also realize us Americans have been extremely fortunate the attendant battles largely took place away from our shores. These lands are such an important part of world history and I only hope we've all learned the lesson that armed conflict rarely produces winners; just losers. Thank you for this.

Thanks for sharing your videos Steven, I’m just revisiting your videos at the moment. I have been on a Battlefields Tour but a few years ago now, the names on memorials and the graves are truly humbling, I’m not sure we can truly appreciate the scale of the suffering on all sides.

Brilliant stuff, great watch, thank you Steven !

As usual Mr. Upton another excellent video from you. Thank you for posting your video(s) and for keeping WW1 history alive.

Thank you. A fascinating and informative video. It actually taught me something I had never realised. In the 80’s I lived in France for a while ,in Alsace. Now, I worked on a farm. As you rightly said, those twist post are indeed used to erect movable fences, mainly, in my case, to allow animals in a field into an area they had not grazed on yet. I’d do that every day but never had an inkling that I was holding in my hands a part of history. I would have asked if I could have brought one of them home if I had realised at the time..... it’s not like there weren’t enough. They were indeed plentiful! Thank you for a wow moment. I do remember during my stay there, visiting another farm. Whilst exploring an old barn, I went up to the second floor. In that room was a historical time capsule. It was amazing! The barn had been taken over by the Germans and the whole space had been left exactly as it was left by them. I will never forget it

The history is just amazing. The shell casings, bunker, spent munitions, trenches, rail cart and light rails, rifles placed high for us to see - just all the evidence of the hellish battles that is there for tourists to witness is so humbling.

Thank you for another Great Episode!

I look at your videos with a sense of sadness as well as amazement. I am a citizen of the USA and a veteran of Vietnam. What I find incredible is that the number of losses incurred in one battle could nearly equal what we lost in 10 years in Vietnam. It sometimes seems similar to our civil war where people marched line abreast into their own destruction only without the trench as a temporary jumping off point. Over time, I have viewed almost all of your videos and it leaves me astounded that France could be dotted with so many cemeteries, and not small ones either. None of those people were my ancestors but, never the less, I find it sad to think of how many future doctors, teachers, scientists and others were lost in that war never having the chance to realize their potential. Your videos are an education to be sure.

When I visited the Hooge Crater and graveyard in the early 90"s there were no exhibitions .... no trench exhibits ..... just the craters overgrown on their banks. Good to see it has been developed and preserved. The Wargrave cemetery shocked me .... so many graves with words like A British Soldier, Know Unto God. And many of the single grave sizes had 3 or 4 unknown soldiers buried in them.

Really enjoy your videos, Steven. Thanks for posting. Cheers from Canada.

Thank you for making such truly excellent content. I have developed a real interest in the great war since watching 1917. I am working my way through everyone of your videos. Thanks again for the excellent content!

Over 100 years ago, and yet it looks like the battle was fought 10 years ago....great video, great work, with great honour.

Thank You for this good work.Greetings from Germany.

GREAT film. Steven!! I love your format: You, narrating the videos after shooting them. It's good and I watch them all. For a western front nerd that have yet to go there, your channel is gold. Keep up the work. Cheers, Jonas

Thank you Steven. Very interesting I hope to visit the area next year. Particularly Railway wood. I have a family member who is still there remembered on the Menin gate.

@Steven Upton great video! Thanks for all the history and footage. One minor remark, I've read that the first flamethrower use was actually in 1914 against the French in the Argonne (on 4-5 October, around Bagatelle-Pavillon.) This is according to an Osprey book, The Flamethrower by Chris McNab. However I wouldn't deny that Hooge would've been the first deployment against the British. I've also never seen a field gun like the one in your video, so I think you're right, it's probably decorative and not authentic. It doesn't appear to have a hydraulic recoil mechanism, so there does remain the possibility it's some pre-war model, but I remain skeptical.

Thank you. My grandfather was near there in 1916.

Fantastic job as usual. I look forward to seeing your next offering on the Great War. My grandfather was in the Red Arrow Division in WW-1 . Thanks

Steven, your videos are inspiring, knowing you as I do, a fellow exservice man, I know your interest and your passion for remembering the fallen of all nations. My own regimental motto was “Ich dien”, I serve, the motto of the Prince of Wales, and it is only when you serve, you truly understand the cost of war in human sacrifice. Thank you for your videos they are educational as well as inspiring and in remembrance. Lest we forget. Amen

As you said, Steve: We shall remember them. They are gone, but never will be forgotten. No matter wich side they were on, they were all brave men far beyond the call of duty. Thanks for your exelent work and my be we can meet on one of those battlefield to produce an educational program, just to show, that today we are friends and war shall never happen again. I am a historian myself and deeple involved into the napoleonic wars. This year in summer, I will travel to Waterloo to visit the work of Waterloo uncovered and we will relive to battle, hour by hour, position by position, to honor those ,who fought an died there. And to shake hands in eternal friendship, to give an example for future generation. sincerly yours. Curd Schumacher

Super interesting, educational, and awe inspiring. Another great vid. The suffering had to be beyond description.

If anyone is wondering, the two rifles attached to the trees are the short model Lee Enfield (SMLE) .303 caliper.They where the standard rifle for the British Empire in WW1. Great video Steven, love your videos. JIM.

Great to see you back Steven. Another very interesting and informative video. Yes, the Ypres salient was a very unhealthy place to be.

Great video - I was there two years ago (a cold , grey, wintery day). My great great uncle is buried in the Hooge Crater Cemetery across the road. He is one of the only soldiers in his row who is identified.

Another wonderful, thoughtful video Mr. Upton. Thank you for sharing with us. I really hope your schedule allows for more of these. I dont I am alone in my thinking that your posts are some of the finest to be found on You Tube.

Have watched 3 of your videos so far. This was too good. Had to subscribe. 👍 Thank you.

Thanks Steven !!

Always a pleasure to watch your WW1 videos. Informative and interesting.

Great film, thanks for making it. I'll be going out there soon to visit

Welcome back, looking forward to more content.

I really enjoy your videos, Steven. It’s nice to see these battlefields in the context of our modern times.

A very interesting place which I will try and visit the next time I'm in the Ypres area. Thanks for your time and excellent commentary Steven.

Thank you. Very educational. My Great Grand Uncle Pte Micheal Mooney was There. Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment 2nd Battalion as part of the 17th Brigade. It must of been horrendous. Proudly commemorated at The Menin Gate panel 44. Aged just 20 years.An Irish man a patriot and true Hero. Rip.

Stunning stuff. Ive not ever seen a lot of the actual real battlefield places of WW1 other than the most famous places passing quickly in a documentary where nothing is hardly dwelt upon for long. Im learning so much about this period as it was really a gap in my history knowledge as a American my family studied and visited our US Civil War battlefields and fortresses and river battle sites of ironclads, as i live right on the line that existed between the Federals and Confederates states and many civil war sites are within our fairly ease of travel to see. My grandfather was in WW2 in Italy and my GGF was in Spanish American war i believe,but he did not go to Europe. Anyway, so WW1 had been more ignored in my studies i guess due to stressing more study of wars that were more closer in location and family related, but your videos have really taught me a lot about how things were and i am just getting better acquainted with regional geography and place names of different countries there, as i knew and had familiarity with some of the major names as Somme and Ypres and Flanders, but there are so many more i was not at all familiar with or knew about. Its even more mindboggling after seeing yours and others videos the sheer amount of manpower and work went into all the construction and fabricating of the trench systems and fortifications. Then the other mindboggling fact of how many humans were horribly tortured and destroyed in all this mess.

Have visited here from Australia. So nice a place. What struck me though is there is a Theme park right behind it, who would have thought those fighting and dying here that so long after kids would be running around playing on rides.

Thank you Steve! I love the in depth coverage and insights in your videos. Looking forward to more!

Very good objective commentary. Thank you.

my 2nd great-granduncle was sgt for the 6th battalion somerset's he would of been there thanks for showing us around

Excellent video. Very educational and well done. Thanks for showing this to us.

Thanks for the very interesting video. Whenever I see content regarding WW1, I feel a sense of rage and sadness for the huge loss of life for such a senseless cause, although it must have seemed different at the time. As an ex serviceman myself, I often think that the best tribute we can give to those who died, is to insure that no other generation has to pay such a price ever again.

Awesome movie and commentary Steven. Much appreciated once again.

Highly educational, thank you

Steven. Thanks for another excellent video. I appreciate you are very busy but will your next post be covering Railway wood. You may remember my grandfather served with the Liverpool Scottish in this area in 1915. Your videos and commentary have been invaluable to help me understand more about what happened in the Hooge area. Thanks for all your efforts.

Thank you Steve, your information and videography were most enjoyable.

Great video again Steven. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing this .

Very informative video. Thanks a lot for posting it. The more I see of the Ypres area the more amazed I am at the level of violence that occurred there for 4 straight years. It is hard for us today to wrap our heads around how people could endure such high levels of violence for such long periods of time but it was a different world back then.

Nice video, my good man. Hello from Las Vegas ,Nevada 🇺🇸

Stayed in that hotel for a week a few years ago. Walked around that area. Did the Menin Gate last post and later in the week went to Arras Cemetery where my Uncle Herbert Leonard Jones has his name scribed on the memorial wall. He was killed on the 18/08/1918 aged 19yrs. One of the many personnel with no known grave. He was killed somewhere in Flanders fields and his body was buried where he fell. R I P.

I visited here earlier this year. Great to revisit and you taught me something I didn't know ! Great video

Very enjoyable Steve. Was camped at Kemmel last year on the motorcycle and had a week doing Ypres but need to go back as missed so much.

Thankyou Steven,a very informative video,will now try and pull this in to a forth coming trip,thanks to your efforts.

Great work Steven....another very informative video....I always enjoy and learn....a drone perspective would have been interesting ...my great cousin was a stretcher bearer with the 9th Australian Field Ambulance KIA near Zonnenbeke Railway Station in 1917...he is remembered on the Menin Gate....Lest We Forget

alwayys interesting .... thank you Steve

But Steven, farmers have used screw pickets for many many years. They are not exclusive to a war setting. We use them and we are no where near a battlefield. They are also used for electric fencing. That farmers are using them in the area may also be coincidence. They are great for temporary farm fencing - easy to put up and take down and you can shift the size of fields easily.

Good to see you’re back. I have been to most of the places you have covered and found your commentary very interesting, informative and enjoyable. Does this mean you have more vids to follow?

When I visit that area in SEP 2019 & SEP 2020, I actually stayed in this hotel (which is great place with friendly staff by the way).

Thank you Mister Upton!

Good to see you back and posting more great content.

There are some remains of WWI training trenches used at CFB Borden in Ontario, Canadian troops spent a month in them before shipping out to England.

What a beautiful spot.

Just as a comparison: the second crater was about 1.5 metric tons of Amatol - a mix of ammonium nitrate and TNT. In Beirut about 2500 metric tons of ammonium nitrate detonated. It is a little more complicated, because chemistry and explosive stuff, but, to make it short: that is kind of what happened there.

We stayed in the hotel on our visit, our room looked out over this, an amazing place

Long time sir. Thx for the upload 👍

I can’t remember which crater I visited but it was truly a sight to behold. Its unthinkable what the men on both sideshow had no idea thought when the mines went off.

Hooge, pronounced Howe (local dialect) or Hogue (Flemish/Dutch), means 'high', so like the english words high or even huge, and refers to a elevation in this otherwise boringly, but also humbling flat countryside. So nearby Hogebos is a wood (bos like in bush) on top of an elevation. Therefore strategically important for observation, directing operations and artillery fire. Great video. Do you have one of hill 60, near Caterpillar Mine Crater and the monument to WW1 shot at by German troops in 1940? Awe inspiring place

Very good video thank you sir. May all those boys rest in peace

Excellent video. Thank you Steve!

Thank you for these videos!

Thank you for all your videos. They are the best record of WW1 Can you tell me the name of the hotel I would like to visit there.

the germans named their terror weapon flammenwerfer = flame thrower direct translation - however as with all things in war - allied sharpshooters soon learned that a well-aimed bullet hitting the compressed liquid cannister that was carried along by 4-5 person abteilung (crew members) would lead to a spark that ignited and exploded the cannister killing the entire crew that accompanied the device in a huge fireball - obviously the sharpshooters were very keen to do so as well as the solders to see them get a direct hit ! - so the use of the device was not without its own inherent risks - I presume you are at the Hooge Crater Museum across the road from the frighteningly large Hooge Crater cemetery ? - I was there but sadly the doors were locked and it was closed - I did not know about nor see the region you have filmed and it does look quite fascinating - hopefully next time - as always - nice work Stephen your enthusiasm and interest in filming these historic locations of the Great War is appreciated - your drone in particular has offered myself a new perspective

Thank You 🙏🏼

my father was in the rcaf back in the 50's I have slides of some of the great battle fields around the same area, I remember most of them from when we were growing up. as soon as this pandemic is over i'd like the get a view master +/- have another look through them again, and through to odd one as a portfolio file

Another great video , very informative, thanks for uploading

I went there a few years ago and well worth a visit.

Very interesting series of vids you've done. Nice work.

An excellent review of an unimaginable terror.

Steven, A suggestion for a video: the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons Belgium where the first known British casualty of the Great War ( Private John Parr, of the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment) killed August 1914 is buried and the last British Imperial casualty of the war George Lawrence Price of the Canadian 28th (Northwest) Battalion who was killed 11 minutes before the Nov 11th cease fire by a German sniper. Completely by chance, they are buried a few yards apart. No irony was intended.

👏👏👏👏👏👏 great work Steven

Where have you been? Love your videos. Haven't seen one in a long time!