THE YPRES TIMES
Between this point and Salvation Corner only two or three gaping mouths at
odd intervals in the bank side can be seen from the Boesinghe road, a closer
examination revealing the entrances almost screened from View by coarse dank
vegetation, and interiors half filled with debris of all kinds, the last traces of
"elephant" iron supporting the roofs fast rotting away, and at very frequent
intervals along the top of the Yser's banks deep treacherous cavities overgrown
with grass and long nettles and docks," not old shell holes, but the result of the
caving-in of our old abodes.
Elsewhere in the Salient there remains very little indeed of the countless saps,
strong points, pill boxes, and such dug-outs as could be made. I scoured the old
field of operations thoroughly, from Pilckem to Wytschaete, from Hooge back
into the town, but little was to be seen anywhere. The local tillers of the soil
appear to have made half-hearted attempts to eradicate from their land our and
the enemy's legacy of concrete and steel in some instances, although it is some
times difficult to decide whether shell fire or manual labour is responsible for the
resultant accumulated rubble.
There must be some queer cavities still remaining beneath certain of the newly
erected buildings in Ypres, many undiscovered dives and retreats built by the
town's defenders during those stern times.
A careful search among the very few remaining vacant sites in odd corners of
the old city's ruins occasionally brings to light various relics and reminders of the
past, and some of my explorations in these quarters revealed traces of former
occupants.
Among other things, I have discovered a pipe ready filled for lighting, together
with a packet of ration tobacco and a box of matchesor rather their mouldy
remainsin an obscure niche in a cellar wall, a rust-eaten dixie" wrapped in a
mildewed greyback shirt beneath a litter of broken plaster, containing field
