Acquaintances

The Belgian town of Ipr, 60 kilometres south-west of Bruges, and near the border with France today, only about 35,000 people are living. During the First World War, it was completely destroyed and then rebuilt, together with a city building, old houses and all its sights. Ipr became the first on the sad list of all war-torn cities, but since World War II, it is no longer unique. His name, however, reminds us of dichlorodiethylsulphide, or " burnt gas " , one of the combat poisoning substances, permanently in history, and the textbook on HBP called " Pirit " .

Christmas miracle
German and British soldiers in the clock

Three more years before the historic scene of the attack, and fighting around Ipr is already huge. Nearly immediately after the First World War, the German army launched an offensive to Paris through Belgium. In early September 1914, only 40 kilometres from the capital of France during the battle on the Marne River, where the salvation of the standby division had only been halted by six hundred Paris taxis urgently mobilized for the transport of soldiers.