Canal de la Deûle

The Deûle (French pronunciation: ​[døl]; Dutch: Deule) is a river of northern France which is channeled for the main part of its course (from Lens to Lille). The upstream part is still partly free-flowing and is known as the Souchez. The Deûle flows into the Lys (right bank) in Deûlémont. The Souchez is formed from the union, in the village of Souchez, of two smaller brooks, called the Carency and the Saint-Nazaire. The channeled part comprises two branches: the high gauge canal known as Canal de la Deûle which ensures the connection between the channeled Lys and the Scarpe (a tributary of the Scheldt) in Douai, the Canal de Lens, fed by the Souchez, which connects Lens with the Canal de la Deûle at Courrières.Immediately downstream of Lens, the channel is unusually elevated compared to the neighboring banks, as a result of mining depressions. The Deûle flows through the departments of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, and the towns of Lens, Wingles, Loos, Lille, Wambrechies and Quesnoy-sur-Deûle, before it flows into the Lys at Deûlémont. The Deûle does not yet profit from a Schéma d'aménagement et de gestion des eaux.

Deûlémont (French pronunciation: ​[dølemɔ̃]; from Dutch: Deulemonde) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Situated at the confluence of the rivers Deûle and Lys, it is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.

Frelinghien (French pronunciation: ​[fʁəlɛ̃ɡjɛ̃]; Dutch: Ferlingen) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.

Warneton (Dutch: Waasten; Picard: Varnetån/Warneuton) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Comines-Warneton, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a municipality of its own until the 1977 merger of Belgian municipalities. It is immediately to the north of the French commune of Warneton, across the river Lys or Leie. The hamlet of Gheer is on its territory.

Warneton (French pronunciation: [waʁnətɔ̃]; Dutch: Waasten) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.

Gheer is a hamlet of Wallonia in the municipality of Comines-Warneton, district of Warneton, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The hamlet is situated on the Warneton - Ploegsteert road, approximately 15 km south of Ypres .The hamlet was completely destroyed in the First World War.

Ploegsteert Wood was a sector of the Western Front in Flanders in World War I, part of the Ypres Salient. It is located around the Belgian village of Ploegsteert, Wallonia. After fierce fighting in late 1914 and early 1915, Ploegsteert Wood became a quiet sector where no major action took place. Units were sent here to recuperate and retrain after tougher fighting elsewhere, and before returning to take part in more active operations. British Tommies referred to Ploegsteert Wood as "Plugstreet Wood". From January to May 1916, Winston Churchill served in the area as Commanding Officer (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. There are numerous Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries and memorials around the wood, including the Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) CWGC Cemetery and the Berks CWGC Cemetery Extension with the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing. The Ploegsteert Memorial commemorates more than 11,000 British and Empire servicemen who died during the First World War and have no known grave. It is one of several CWGC Memorials to the Missing along the Western Front. Those lost within the Ypres Salient without a known grave are commemorated at the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, while the missing of New Zealand and Newfoundland are honoured on separate memorials.

The Battle of Messines was fought in October 1914 between the armies of the German empire and British empire and France as part of the Race to the Sea, between the river Douve and the Comines–Ypres canal.

Mesen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmeːsə(n)] (listen); French: Messines, French pronunciation: ​[mɛsin], historically used in English) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. On January 1, 2006, Mesen had a total population of 988. The total area is 3.58 km2 which gives a population density of 276 inhabitants per km2. The municipality comprises only one main settlement, the town of Mesen proper. An exclave to the west of the main territory is surrounded by the municipalities of Heuvelland and Comines-Warneton. Villages neighbouring the municipality: a. Wijtschate (in the municipality of Heuvelland) b. Warneton (in the municipality of Comines-Warneton) c. Ploegsteert (in the municipality of Comines-Warneton)Mesen is the smallest city in Belgium. It is a municipality with language facilities. Mesen is twinned with Featherston in New Zealand in part due to the location of the New Zealand World War I Memorial, which has annual Anzac Day commemorations on 25 April.

Houplines (French pronunciation: ​[uplin]; Dutch: Opline) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.Adjoining the communal (village) cemetery is the Houplines Communal Cemetery Extension, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintained cemetery containing the graves of 466 identified casualties, 465 of them Commonwealth servicemen who died in the area around the village during the First World War. Houplines maintains a partnership arrangement with the German community of Kirchhundem.

The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was an attack by the British Second Army (General Sir Herbert Plumer), on the Western Front, near the village of Messines (Dutch: Mesen) in West Flanders, Belgium, during the First World War. The Nivelle Offensive in April and May had failed to achieve its more grandiose aims, had led to the demoralisation of French troops and confounded the Anglo-French strategy for 1917. The attack forced the Germans to move reserves to Flanders from the Arras and Aisne fronts, relieving pressure on the French. The British tactical objective was to capture the German defences on the ridge, which ran from Ploegsteert Wood (Plugstreet to the British) in the south, through Messines and Wytschaete to Mt Sorrel, depriving the German 4th Army of the high ground. The ridge gave commanding views of the British defences and back areas of Ypres to the north, from which the British intended to conduct the Northern Operation, an advance to Passchendaele Ridge and then the capture of the Belgian coast up to the Dutch frontier. The Second Army had five corps, three for the attack and two on the northern flank not part of the operation; XIV Corps was in General Headquarters reserve. The 4th Army divisions of Group Wytschaete (Gruppe Wijtschate, the IX Reserve Corps headquarters) held the ridge and were later reinforced by a division from Group Ypres (Gruppe Ypern). The British attacked with the II Anzac Corps (3rd Australian Division, New Zealand Division and the 25th Division, with the 4th Australian Division in reserve), IX Corps (36th (Ulster), 16th (Irish) and 19th (Western) divisions and the 11th (Northern) Division in reserve) and X Corps (41st, 47th (1/2nd London) and 23rd Divisions with the 24th Division in reserve). XIV Corps was in reserve, with the Guards Division, 1st Division, 8th Division and the 32nd Division. The 30th, 55th (West Lancashire), 39th and 38th (Welsh) divisions, in II Corps and VIII Corps, guarded the northern flank and made probing attacks on 8 June. Gruppe Wijtschate held the ridge with the 204th, 35th, 2nd, 3rd Bavarian (relieving the 40th Division when the British attack began) and 4th Bavarian divisions, with the 7th Division and 1st Guard Reserve Division as Eingreif (counter-attack) divisions. The 24th Saxon Division, relieved on 5 June, was rushed back when the attack began and the 11th Division, in Gruppe Ypern reserve, arrived on 8 June. The battle began with the detonation of nineteen mines beneath the German front position, which devastated it and left large craters. A creeping barrage, 700 yd (640 m) deep, began and protected the British troops as they secured the ridge with support from tanks, cavalry patrols and aircraft. The effect of the British mines, barrages and bombardments was improved by advances in artillery survey, flash spotting and centralised control of artillery from the Second Army headquarters. British attacks from 8 to 14 June advanced the front line beyond the former German Sehnenstellung (Chord Position, the Oosttaverne Line to the British). The battle was a prelude to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres, the preliminary bombardment for which began on 11 July 1917.

Messines Ridge British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front.