The Ypres Times. Vauban was one of the greatest military engineers of all time. He conducted fifty-three sieges and took part in one hundred and forty battlesa record even for a Marshal of France. THE MENIN GATE MEMORIAL. Reproduced by courtesy of Sir Reginald Blomfield, R.A. A Total Weight of Twenty Thousand Tons. Mr. R. Potter, B.Sc., the Clerk of Works, kindly gave me some striking figures con nected with the erection of the memorial. The structure, he told me, is built upon 496 concrete piles, each weighing 5 tons, supplemented by 60 pitch-pine piles, each 30 feet in length. The weight of the concrete used in the piles, causeway walls, arch, raft and the super-structure leading to the loggia level, totals 12,500 tons and to this must be added 510 tons of steel. There are 77,660 cubic feet of stone-work and 40,550 cubic feet of' brick-work, the latter figure including 13,500 feet in the rampart walls. The whole building, when completed, will reach the enormous weight of 20,000 tons. In Memory of 58,600 Missing." The names of soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in the Ypres Salient prior to the 16th of August, 1917, and those of Dominion soldiers who fell in Belgium during the War (excluding New Zealand personnel, who are to be commemorated at Tvne Cot, Passchendaele) and for whom 110 known graves exist, have been inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial in units and in alphabetical order. Approximately 58,600 names have been inscribed, 43,900 of which represent the United Kingdom personnel, the remainder being 7,300 Canadians, 6,400 Australians, 600 South Africans and 400 Indians. Naturally, it was found necessary to provide a very large wall space for these thousands, and the names have been cut in 1,166 Portland stone panels, 292 of which have been fixed in the great hall, 460 on the staircases and 414 in the loggia. All of these panels are now in position, and it may be mentioned that the carving and preparation was executed in the United Kingdom. It is anticipated that the Memorial will be completed in the early autumn.

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1927 | | pagina 27