On the gentle slopes of the Messines ridge lies a small wood which faces the city of Eap.

Here in 1914 a Bavarian soldier carried messages to and from the front line.

Generation later he would return as his armies stamped their way across Europe.

This week, we're back in Flanders.

Welcome to the old front line.

Once more, we find ourselves in Flanders' fields, and we're starting this week, south-west of

Epe, on the southern outskirts of the village of Vormazila. This was a village that was just

behind the British front line for most of the war. Regular soldiers, old contemptibles,

marched through it on their way to the front during the first Battle of Eap in 1914.

When the front lines were established at the end of that battle and trench warfare began,

men came through here on route to the front line at Centleroi or around the village of Wicharta or White Sheets, as they called it.

Just like us, the British Tommy of the Great War could not pronounce many of these foreign names, particularly here in Flanders,

and he corrupted them. And White Sheet, sitting high on the Massines Ridge, was the dominant village

on this part of the battlefield. And as we start on a road junction near a wayside cavalry on the southern

edge of Vormazila village, we can see the top of the spire of Wicharta, white-cheeked church,

just above the trees in the distance. Behind us is the village of Vormazila itself. By 1916,

where we are now was a route to the front line.

The communication trenches ran through here. The village of Vormazila, damaged by shell fire,

was nevertheless intact. Some of its buildings were still used as billets, particularly the

cellars of some of the bigger houses in Vormazela. And there were advanced headquarters

here and also medical facilities. There are several cemeteries. of some of the bigger houses in Vormazela and there were advanced headquarters here

and also medical facilities.

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