Behind the lines in Flanders, close to the road and railway line that led from Poperinger to

Epe lies the hamlet of Brandhurk. Here during the Great War, medical facilities were constructed

to treat the wounded returning from the line. Here women faced the grim reality of the war, and today the cemeteries

at Brantirc remind us that not everybody could be saved. Aside from a brief visit to Yorkshire

trench near Bosinger, as part of our 100th episode of the old front line

I realise that we haven't been back to Flanders this year yet

so in this episode we're returning to the ground

around the Belgian city of Eap

Eapraise to the old contemptibles

wipers to the troops later in the war

but not on the front line we're behind the lines so where are we

well we're just outside the hamlets the village today of brand herk which is about halfway between

popperinger a town behind the lines that was the main British base for much of the First World War

and the city of Eap and beyond that where the front lines were located.

This in 1914 was a small hamlet, Brandtirk, probably no more than 20 odd houses and a few farms,

open fields around it, some woodland to the west, but to the north and part of it straddled that was the main Popperinger-Eppra Road,

but also the main Popperinger to Ipe railway line. And that's an important factor in the importance of this ground during those four years of the Great War.

This was a place that never saw any fighting, the front lines were never here, but with the railway and with the roads and with its position halfway between those two important points of Popperinger and Eap, we can see how Brandeirk

was an important link in the arterial routes to and from the front line, men marching up to take

part in the battles or hold the line, and then the wounded or the sick coming back for treatment

in medical facilities. So as such, Branturk, the war swept through Brandturk for all four years of the conflict.

It wasn't destroyed in the same way as the city of Eap was.

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