Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917)

Spanbroekmolen is a small group of farms in Heuvelland, a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The hamlet is sited on one of the highest points of the Messines Ridge, in between the villages of Kemmel, Wijtschate and Wulvergem.

Croonaert Wood is a location in the municipality of Heuvelland near Ypres, Belgium. It is a lightly forested area known for the Bayernwald Trenches open-air museum located there.

Wulverghem (also known as Wulvergem) is a Belgian village. It is the smallest village in the Heuvelland Municipality, with 260 people, and a total area of 350 hectares.

The Actions of St Eloi Craters from 27 March to 16 April 1916, were local operations in the Ypres Salient of Flanders, during the First World War by the German 4th Army and the British Second Army. Sint-Elooi (the French St Eloi is commonly used in English) is a village about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Ypres in Belgium. The British dug six galleries under no man's land, placed large explosive charges under the German defences and blew them at 4:15 a.m. on 27 March. The 27th Division captured all but craters 4 and 5. The 46th Reserve Division counter-attacked but the British captured craters 4 and 5 on 30 March. The Canadian Corps took over, despite the disadvantage of relieving troops in action. The Canadians inherited positions in a deplorable state, the British having pressed their advantage, rather than consolidating the captured ground. On the night of 5/6 April a German methodical attack (Gegenangriff) recovered the captured craters. Canadian runners struggled to deliver messages and for several days the Canadian and British staffs were ignorant of which craters had been captured, the topography having been changed so much by the mine detonations. There were 17 craters, the new ones superimposed on the old, the ground full of shell-holes and derelict trenches. Snipers made it impossible to orientate and fresh troops easily mistook one pair of craters for another. The Canadians counter-attacked several times, then concentrated on consolidating the front line, ready for another attempt. Constant rain, oozing mud and incessant artillery-fire exhausted troops quickly and battalions had to be relieved after a couple of days. Canadian and British staffs were still ignorant of the German capture of craters 4 and 5. Conflicting reports added to the uncertainty but a reconnaissance by a Canadian major on 10 April found that the Germans were in crater 4. On 16 April, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) photographed the area, showing the Germans in craters 2, 3, 4 and 5 and a trench round the front lips. Plans to attack were cancelled and for two weeks both sides exchanged artillery-fire. The mud and poor weather caused unprecedented misery on the troops but the first attack showed that with preparation, surprise and good timing a limited objective could be captured. The British had attacked with tired troops and had not achieved all of their objectives and the second attempt was at the cost of quick consolidation. At St Eloi, against an attack on a narrow front, where the defender had good observation, the ground could not be held. It was an open question as to what width of front to attack, narrow enough to guarantee success, yet wide enough to force the Germans to disperse their artillery-fire so that captured ground could be held.

Sint-Elooi is a small village, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Ypres in the Flemish province of West Flanders in Belgium. The former municipality is now part of Ypres. Though Sint-Elooi is the Dutch and only official name, the village's French name, St. Eloi, is most commonly used in English due to its role in World War I. The village and the nearby locations of Voormezele and Hollebeke were merged into Zillebeke in 1970 and into Ypres in 1976.

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.

The Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial is a World War I memorial, located in Messines Ridge British Cemetery, near the town of Mesen, Belgium. The memorial lists 827 officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force with no known grave who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918. This period included the Battle of Messines.

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.

The Kemmelberg (English: Kemmel Hill, French: Mont Kemmel) is a hill formation in Flanders, Belgium. It is located less than a kilometer from the village of Kemmel, part of the municipality of Heuvelland in the province of West Flanders. The Kemmelberg is the highest point in the province with an altitude of 154 metres (505 ft), this is the geodetic point with mark Ch63.1, as measured by the National Geographical Institute (NGI) in Brussels in October 1951 via optical levelling.

The Gas attacks at Wulverghem (30 April and 17 June 1916) were German cloud gas releases during the First World War on British troops at Wulverghem in the municipality of Heuvelland, near Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The gas attacks were part of the sporadic fighting between battles in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. The British Second Army held the ground from Messines Ridge northwards to Steenstraat and the divisions opposite the German XXIII Reserve Corps had received warnings of a gas attack. From 21 to 23 April, British artillery-fire exploded several gas cylinders in the German lines around Spanbroekmolen, which released greenish-yellow clouds. A gas alert was given on 25 April when the wind began to blow from the north-east and routine work was suspended; on 29 April, two German soldiers deserted and warned that an attack was imminent. Just after midnight on 30 April, the German attack began and over no man's land, a gas cloud drifted on the wind into the British defences, then south-west towards Bailleul. The gas used at Wulverghem was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene, which had been used against British troops on 19 December 1915 in the phosgene attack at Wieltje, north-east of Ypres. This and earlier gas attacks, beginning at the Second Battle of Ypres (21 April – 25 May 1915) had given the British time to replace improvised gas masks with effective mass-produced versions, obtain other anti-gas equipment and to establish anti-gas procedures. Helmets impregnated with chemicals to neutralise chlorine had been issued in several variants, each more effective than the last. By April 1916, British troops had PH helmets and some specialist troops like machine-gunners, were equipped with box respirators. The German gas attack at Wulverghem on 30 April, caused the defenders 562 gas casualties and 89 gas fatalities but German raiding parties, looking for mine entrances to destroy, were repulsed with small-arms and artillery fire. A second attempt by the Germans on 17 June caused about the same number of gas casualties but the British again easily repulsed German patrols.

Heuvelland (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦøːvəlɑnt] ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the villages of Dranouter, Kemmel, De Klijte, Loker, Nieuwkerke, Westouter, Wijtschate and Wulvergem. Heuvelland is a thinly populated rural municipality, located between the small urban centres of Ypres and Poperinge and the metropolitan area of Kortrijk-Lille along the E17. On 1 January 2006 Heuvelland had a total population of 8,217. The total area is 94.24 km2 which gives a population density of 87 inhabitants per km2. The name heuvelland is Dutch meaning "hill country", as the municipality is characterized by the different hills on its territory.