Eyewitness accounts of Sunday the 22 November 1914
Priest Delaere writes the following in his diary in French ( I didn’t think it was fair to not translate it) : the shells touched with an astonishing precision of 13 to 15 km. from the middle of the street, I watched helplessly as this useless vandalism took place. first a breach on either side of the tower, then the clock goes down and the carillon collapses, around 11.30 the tower catches fire. in the afternoon, after all my duties were done, I learned that the cathedral was on fire. in the face of the contradictory noises I went to see, it was already dark, the roof was on fire and flaming fragments of wood were falling through the gaping holes in the vault, with the help of a gendarme, a nurse and an English soldier, we are able to save the altar cloths with their expensive embroidery and various precious objects. The fire raged all night long and all the following day, the market hall, with the town hall, the cathedral with the major part of the cloister of St. Martin, the cloister of Jansenius, the theater of the volle with Parnassus, the meat hall with museum and a whole block of beautiful houses were the prey of the flames. There was a lack of water and arms to put out the fires.
Oskar Versteele (Ieper 1 april 1892 – De Panne 26 augustus 1968). After a year of” groot seminarie” in Brugge (1915), he ended up in the Belgian military training camp in Auvours and in 1916 became a stretcher bearer at the Belgian frontIn 1920 Versteele was ordained as a priest and appointed as a teacher at St Lodewijk’s College in Brugge.
he wrote the following about saving the artifacts in the cathedral : On the market square in the basement of the Durnez family we took shelter during the bombardment of the hall, after each shell we came upstairs to see what had happened. The shells came from over the Menin Gate, fired from the Roeselare Menin Road by Austrian mortars , size 40 and 42, a systematic bombardment, first below the tower at the police station, located next to the ‘donkere poort’ and then the tower. As the building burned, the artillery moved towards St. Martin’s Cathedral, the first hit right in the transept, near the pointy little tower. With Theofiel Wylleman,( who was the clerk at the court), we broke down parts of the preacher’s chair and parts of the pews in the choir and placed them in the sacristy in anticipation of further evacuation, Bastin a Walloon Gendarme who was a brave man helped us. we covered up the graves of the bishops to prevent them from being damaged by falling debris. English soldiers and officers took some statues and beautiful carved parts of oak off the choir as souvenirs. With the help of French soldiers and officers we were able to move vestments, chalices, monstrance’s, ciboriums and place them under ‘ the nieuwerck’.
Maria Van Uxem, a teacher who was in close contact with pastor Delaere, wrote the following about what happened that day : Around 9 am, numerous bombs fell, pieces fell from both sides of the belfry, the clockwork and the two carillons fell right through the tower. In the cathedral, it was mainly Father Delaere, Miss Cloostermans a Belgian nurse, Frederik Harding an Englishman and a Belgian gendarme who saved many valuables. These were temporarily housed in the pub ‘het boerenhol’, the ‘kasselrij’ and the mayor’s cellar.
rapport de seance du 26 novembre 1914 du comité provisoire qui administra la ville d’ypres
the committee decides to send a letter to deputy police commissioner Vanden Hende, with a copy to the mayor.
during the fire of the cloth hall and the cathedral , the following French officers have particularly distinguished themselves by the rescue of the works of art of our church, a part of archives and the contability of the city: (translation underneath the original text in French)
Le chef de battalions Madelin, Cdt le 3e battalion des chasseurs
Le capitaine Baugier cdt la 1ère Cie de ce bataillon
Le Lieutenant du génie cdt en second la cie du génie de la 43é division ( nous ignorons son non)
Il suffit de donner connaissance de ces faits à M. le General Lanquet et Commandant la 4é division a Paris. Ces officiers font partie, de la 86e brigade, 43 division du 21 corps d’armée. Nous insistons d’autant plus que ces Méssieurs, outre le couragequ’ils ont montré en ces tristes circonstances, sont venus nous offrir, tant en leur nom de leurs subordonnés la somme de 600 frs. gue le Gouvernements Belge leur remise pour récompenser leur dévouement.
Battalion Commander Madelin, 3rd battalion of the hunters
Captain Baugier Commander of the 1st Company of this battalion.
The Engineer Lieutenant second in command of the 43rd Division Engineer Company (we do not know his name).
It is enough to give knowledge of these facts to General Lanquet and Commander of the 4th Division in Paris. These officers are part of the 86th brigade, 43rd division of the 21 corps. We insist all the more that these gentlemen, in addition to the courage which they showed in these sad circumstances, came to offer us, in the name of their subordinates the sum of 600 Frs. that the Belgian Government gave them as a reward for their devotion.
Sister Margriet Marie
At 6 pm, our priest gets in the cathedral via the sacristy into the sanctuary, the roof of the main nave and the chapel of the holy sacrament go up in flames. With the help of Frederik Harding, Miss Cloostermans and a Belgian corporal, he manages to save several altar table hangings, including those from the 12th century. They are taken to the inn ‘ boerenhol’, I arrive just in time to help rescue some beautiful tapestries and statues. they are placed in the third sacristy. objects of great value from the cloth halls also end up in ‘het boerenhol’ or in the old kasselrij building or in the mayor’s cellar. some French soldiers who are having a rest day also help to rescue objects, especially from the cloth hall.
on the 23rd of November she writes the following : In the afternoon on the corner of Rue Wenninck, I meet two strange individuals, one in clothes that are too loose, the other in clothes that are too short. I manage to warn English soldiers who arrested them as German spies.
remark : Both Marie and Sister Margriet give the names of the nurse Juffr. Cloostermans and Frederik Harding who was actually a red cross doctor and with the official papers of the’ comité provisoire’ some names are known of the French soldiers that helped. only one remark of the British soldiers that seemed to have taken souvenirs. that for sure happened on several occasions during the war, some have been brought back over the years.
sources :
oorlogsdagboeken over ieper by Jozef Geldof part 1 and 2
Journal d’une soeur d’Ypres, Octobre 1914 à Mai 1915 (found in the German archives in Stuttgart since mine is misplaced once again)
images : all postcards are from my own collection