1950 UCI Road World Championships

Moorslede (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmoːrsˌleːdə]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Dadizele, Slypskapelle and Moorslede proper. On 1 January 2006, Moorslede had a total population of 10,618. The total area is 35.34 km² which gives a population density of 300 inhabitants per km².

Passendale cheese, named for Passendale, the village where it originated, is one of the best-known cheeses of Belgium. Regular Passendale cheese is produced in two versions, Classic and Prelude. There is also a premium version, Passendale Bel Age. Passendale Cheese resembles a loaf of bread, with a round shape, and a hard but edible brown rind with spots of white. Inside, the flesh is golden, dotted with small holes and very creamy. It has a firm and damp consistency, slightly sweet bouquet and mild flavor.

Captain Maurice Lea Cooper (18 December 1898 – 2 October 1918) was an Irish World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories.

Terhand is a tiny hamlet approximately 12 km east of Ypres in Belgium.The village consists of about 40 houses with a small street running through the middle of them. The road from Ypres is lined with fields but very few trees; most of them were destroyed in the First World War. Terhand was captured by the British Army on 29 September, 1918.

Passendale (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpɑsə(n)daːlə]) or Passchendaele (; obsolete spelling, retained in English; West Flemish: Passchendoale) is a rural Belgian village in the Zonnebeke municipality of West Flanders province. It is close to the town of Ypres, situated on the hill ridge separating the historical wetlands of the Yser and Leie valleys. It is also commonly known as a battlefield and the name of a campaign during World War I, the Battle of Passchendaele.

The Third Battle of Ypres (German: Dritte Flandernschlacht; French: Troisième Bataille des Flandres; Dutch: Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders, as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lies on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 mi (8.0 km) from Roulers (now Roeselare), a junction of the Bruges-(Brugge)-to-Kortrijk railway. The station at Roulers was on the main supply route of the German 4th Army. Once Passchendaele Ridge had been captured, the Allied advance was to continue to a line from Thourout (now Torhout) to Couckelaere (Koekelare). Further operations and a British supporting attack along the Belgian coast from Nieuport (Nieuwpoort), combined with an amphibious landing (Operation Hush), were to have reached Bruges and then the Dutch frontier. Although a general withdrawal had seemed inevitable in early October, the Germans were able to avoid one due to the resistance of the 4th Army, unusually wet weather in August, the beginning of the autumn rains in October and the diversion of British and French resources to Italy. The campaign ended in November, when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele, apart from local attacks in December and early in the new year. The Battle of the Lys (Fourth Battle of Ypres) and the Fifth Battle of Ypres of 1918, were fought before the Allies occupied the Belgian coast and reached the Dutch frontier. A campaign in Flanders was controversial in 1917 and has remained so. The British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, opposed the offensive, as did General Ferdinand Foch, the Chief of Staff of the French Army. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), did not receive approval for the Flanders operation from the War Cabinet until 25 July. Matters of dispute by the participants, writers and historians since 1917 include the wisdom of pursuing an offensive strategy in the wake of the Nivelle Offensive, rather than waiting for the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France. Remaining controversial are the choice of Flanders, its climate, the selection of General Hubert Gough and the Fifth Army to conduct the offensive, and debates over the nature of the opening attack and between advocates of shallow and deeper objectives. Also debated are the time between the Battle of Messines (7–14 June) and the first Allied attack (the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, 31 July), the extent to which the French Army mutinies influenced the British, the effect of the exceptional weather, the decision to continue the offensive in October and the human costs of the campaign.

The Fifth Battle of Ypres, also called the Advance in Flanders and the Battle of the Peaks of Flanders (French: Bataille des Crêtes de Flandres) is an informal name used to identify a series of World War I battles in northern France and southern Belgium (Flanders) from late September to October 1918.

Oostnieuwkerke is a Belgian village in the province of West Flanders. It is part of the municipality of Staden. There are more than 3400 inhabitants and Oostnieuwkerke lies closer to the town Roeselare than it is to the main village Staden. The little river the Mandel flows through the centre of Oostnieuwkerke towards Roeselare.

The Night action of 1/2 December 1917 during the First World War, was a local operation on the Western Front, in Belgium at the Ypres Salient. The action was a British Fourth Army (re-named from the Second Army on 8 November) attack on the German 4th Army. The Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November) proper had ended officially on 20 November but the attack was intended to capture the heads of valleys leading eastwards from the ridge, to gain observation over German positions. On 18 November the VIII Corps on the right and II Corps on the left (northern) side of the Passchendaele Salient, took over from the Canadian Corps. The area was subjected to constant German artillery bombardment and its vulnerability to attack led to a suggestion by Brigadier Cecil Aspinall that the British should either retire to the west side of the Gheluvelt Plateau or advance to broaden the salient towards Westroosebeke (now Westrozebeke). Expanding the salient would make the troops in it less vulnerable to German artillery-fire and provide a better jumping off line for a resumption of the offensive in the spring of 1918. The British attacked towards Westroozebeke on the night of 1/2 December, dispensing with a preliminary bombardment s a ruse, the artillery remaining silent until eight minutes after the infantry advanced. The ploy failed because the noise of the British assembly and the difficulty of moving across muddy and waterlogged ground had alerted the Germans. In the moonlight, the British troops were visible when they were still 200 yd (180 m) short of the German defences. Some ground was captured and about 150 prisoners were taken but the attack on the redoubts failed and observation over the heads of the valleys on the east and north sides of the ridge, was not gained.

Ledegem (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈleːdəɣɛm]; West Flemish: Legem) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Ledegem proper, Rollegem-Kapelle and Sint-Eloois-Winkel. On January 1, 2006, Ledegem had a total population of 9,306. The total area is 24.76 km² which gives a population density of 376 inhabitants per km². Hulde aan onze Helden is a monument/plaque at the Sint-Petruskerk to the Belgian soldiers and civilians from Ledegem who died in World War I.

Roeselare (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈrusəlaːrə] (listen); French: Roulers, French pronunciation: ​[ʁulɛʁs]; West Flemish: Roeseloare) is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. The name of the city is derived from two Germanic words meaning "reed" and "open space", i.e., a marsh in a forest glade. Roeselare's minor seminary is famous for having hosted the famous Flemish poets Guido Gezelle, Albrecht Rodenbach and missionary Jesuit Constant Lievens. The city is also home to the Rodenbach brewery.