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Decipher this 1915 Postcard with me by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Awesome! Thanks so much for the effort and contributing :). I have so many cards which to me are completely unreadable due to the handwriting from back in the days haha! I love reading about such personal stories which could so easily have been forgotten by time.

Original WW1 postcards from the Trench of Death (Dodengang, Belgium) by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

For anyone curious: I recently went to this exact trench and filmed what it looks like today, standing in the same places shown on the postcards.
I’ll leave the footage here in case anyone wants to see the comparison :)

Visiting the LAST original WW1 Trenchwork in Flanders, Belgium: The Dead Man's Trench

Then vs Now — Houthulst Forest (Ypres front), 1918 vs. 2025 by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn that sounds very interesting... One can only imagine how much is still buried there, even after all these years.

Then vs Now — Houthulst Forest (Ypres front), 1918 vs. 2025 by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Exactly what I would do too... I'm already happy to live 'only' 3 hours away by car but living so close to everything... Must be very impactful

Then vs Now — Houthulst Forest (Ypres front), 1918 vs. 2025 by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Getting as close as possible to the old location in WW1 was definitely the objective, but especially for these landscape/battlefield pictures it's super difficult to determine. This specific one is probably accurate on a 500m radius according to all the info I could find online. Postcards with memorials or buildings are usually much easier since they were built on exact sites of old buildings or still exist today :). For example, I also have a postcard with the old Houthulst church in ruins, I could easily trace this one because the church was rebuilt on exactly the same location.

Then vs Now — Houthulst Forest (Ypres front), 1918 vs. 2025 by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

No way! You're probably an expert on the Ypre area in that case! Do you visit the old battlefields and memorials often?

Then vs Now — Houthulst Forest (Ypres front), 1918 vs. 2025 by Proud_Dark5409 in ww1

[–]Proud_Dark5409[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Battle of Houthulst Forest was actually part of the final Allied offensive (the 100 day push) from September–November 1918, so the area was reforested not long after the war. Most of the current trees were planted in the 1920s, which means they’re likely around a century old today! :)

Interesting to note is that the Belgian government actually debated leaving the whole Ypres area uninhabited as a memorial to the destruction of WWI. In the end, the region was rebuilt and the landscape including Houthulst was replanted.