Farm known in the Great War as 'Pondfarm' by the British Forces, and as 'Kazerne Häseler' by the Germans.

The origin and war history of Pondfarm:

On the 2th of November 1914 the population of the village of St. Julien, was ordered by the municpal authorities to leave their homes and the village. The inhabitants of the Northern and Eastern side of the village already could see the German troops advancing while German bullets were zipping around.
At about noon, the exodus from the village, towards Ypres or surrouding villages where people had relatives or friends living,started
Many people thought they would be only few days away from home, so they left most of their posessions at home. They were as good as certain of a swift retrun.
The following night the opposing armies engaged in battle. Returning home for the people of St. Julien, became inmpossible.

Underneath: a photo of " Kazerne Haeseler", which was the German name for Pondfarm.
(This photo shows the farm Arsène Marant left in May 1914.)

 

Change of occupying forces:

- 1914: British Forces (cf the book: Ieperboog, Slagveld België 10)
- 1915: At the start of the 1st gas attack (Steenstraet) Pondfarm was
the headquarter of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade.
- 1915: German Forces.

In July 1917 the German Army had reinforced their bunkers and their (defence)lines with subterranean tunnels. Several farms, Pondfarm as well,so became real small fortresses. At Pondfarm three large German bunkers of about 40m length (43 yards)were located, also a number of smaller bunkers, subterranean tunnels and cellars too. A narrow-gaunge railway, located just behind Pondfarm, was used for transporting most of the material and equipment to these bunkers(cf. main page)

Pondfarm. Augustus 1917 Ieper

Steady rainfall and heavy shelling transferred the area into a swamp of smelly,slippery yellow mud.

- April 27-1917: German Forces

- July 31-1917: British Forces, German Forces a couple of days

- August 8-1917: British Forces

- August 22-1917: British Forces, 2/5 Gloucestershire Batallion (see below).

- September 28-1918: Belgian Forces (the 1918 Belgian offensive beat the German
definitevely)

" I, Lieut-Colonel, currently investigate the 2/5 Bataljon Lancashire Fusiliers that attacked Pondfarm twice in July, August 1917." .
Further information concerning this Lieutenant-Colonel is not available, nor is the source of this information.

On August 22nd. 1917 the 2/5 Gloucestershire Batallion was involved in an attack, part of the 3d. Battle of Ypres, on 'Pondfarm'and captured it. This resulted in 3 officers and 16 Other ranks that were killed, also 1 officer and 51 Other Ranks wounded, and 1 Other Rank missing(2/5 Gloucestershire Battalion War Diary).Their commander at the time was Colonel Collet.
The 3 officers that were killed,and who are mentioned in the "Roll of Honour" of Officers of the Gloucestershire Regiment were:

DAVIS, Sidney Alfred, 2nd Lt., aged 25, died 22nd August 1917.
TUBBS, Seymour Burnell, Capt., aged 28, died 22nd August 1917.
BLYTH, Alick Frederick, Lt., aged 20, died 23d August 1917.
Their names are mentioned at Tyne Cot Cemetery Memorial for he missing.
The names are also mentioned on the Remembrance page of this website.

The first family that took the risk of returning to the village of St. Julien arrived there on January 14th. 1920. The rest of the inhabitants followed slowly later on.
Everyone who had the courage of starting a new life again over here really had to perform pioneering work. In the first period of the recontruction, Cyriel Petillion and Arseen Marant recieved the message from the mayor an secretary of Langemark that the parish borders were going to be changed. Part of the parish would be allocated to Langemark, another part to Zonnebeke. As a result of this, many people chose to resettle at Langemark. Cyriel and Arseen then started a petition addressed to the local bishop, asking him to maintain the parish of St. Julien at the town of Langemark. All inhabitants signed that petition. The bishop of Bruges agreed and granted the request of the people of St. Julien.

Before the war, Arseen Marant lived at a farm called 'Prinsenhof', known in the war as Border House. This farm, as was Pondfarm, was owned by the same owner. After the war, the farmer of Pondfarm (as so many) didn't return to his farm. Consequently the owner of the farm(s) decided to only reconstruct one farm: Pondfarm.

The local authorities devotedly worked for the cause of the reconstruction of their demolished towns. This was by far not an easy matter. Even though several funds had been established by the government, things didn't work out that smoothly due to bureaucracy and shortage of materials and finances. Still people, from time to time, received some loans for the reconstruction and compensation for the war damage they had suffered. Help in kind, such as cattle, tools and farming equipment also could be obtained.

The boudaries of the Pondfarm property were outlined by Arseen Marant using plough and horse. In the beginning they constructed a wooden barrack for the housing, using the timber they found in the area. Later on a real house was contructed with self made bricks. Those bicks were quite irregular of shape and form. Due to the stove they used inside the house, a number of bricks got blackened. After this first constructions, a new house and farm arose. The first little brick house then was used to accomodate the workmen of the farm.
Before the war, the 'Roeselarestraat' (street to Roeselare) was laid in cobble stones. Due to the shelling in the war, the road was quite damaged. There was a lot of mud holes and in some places timber had to be placed in order to make it passable.
Just after the war, piles of copper shells, cases, as high as a house could be seen here. Posessing copper was prohibited. It was a too valuable material.
All those copper shells were removed by state authorities. Even after that, police officers in civil dress, patrolled in the area to prevent the stealing of copper or to arrest those who did.
Setting ablaze the fields was a technique used to clear the area of explosives. The shallow lying bombs this way exploded. It was as the war had started again.
The day after the fire, the shells then were removed. The weather also created some problems as in the summer of 1921. Temperatures were that high that summer that shells and bombs in uncleared areas exploded being exposed to the heath. The nearby 'Fortuinhoek' (Fortune Corner) was an area where this happened more than once.
The grounds of the nearby Gallipoli farm, after the war, remained fallow. It was used therefore for storing munition and as an explosion area. Bombs containing gas also frequently were made to explode there. When the wind blew in the direction of the neighbouring houses, the gas also drifted that way. The neighbours then had to gather around the fire place in their home because the fire dispelled the gas.

The removal of the war ammunition was mostly done by workmen comming from out of the region. They were payd proportionally for every square meter that was cleaered.
The material they had collected was to be officially collected and deposed, but still some material escaped from the official depot and was secretly sold to the local people. Copper and iron were valuable and wanted.

Some workmen, local people too, also tried to dismantle the munition, secretely on their own. This was a illegal acticvity and a very dangerous one as well. Some man got severely wounded, even died, in these activities as a result of exploding munition. Such terrible events even occured many decades after the war.

After the war, the search for and the trading of war relics turned out to be a profitable enterprise for the local people too. A good some of money was earned this way, it produced a real and major income even. The farming and cultivating of the farmlands was a secondary job in those early pre war days. Only after the land had been sufficiantly cleared, the farming again began. Up to about 1923, oat, peas and beans were the only plants that were cultivated.

After the war, many people were convinced that it was going to be impossible to rebuild the vilage and cultivate the land again. Taking into account the total destruction and devastation they saw before their eyes, it isn't hard to understand their feeling. Still it turned out differently as, year after year, the normal way of living again came through. As mentioned before, a lot of inhabitants had a good, profitable earning by trading war material. This (modest) prosperity was noticable in the growing number of new cafés. In a café called "De Barrière", a painting, made by Cyriel Ghyselen, showing the whole frontarea was to be seen. On the wall of the new Pondfarm, the same painter made a painting of that farm as well.

Untill 1960, Arseen Marant, (unmarried) lived on the farm together with his sister Marie and farm-hand Gerard Vermeulen.

In 1961 the farm house was renewed by the new farmer Frans and Agnes Butaye-Haghedooren (my grandparents). At present the farm is run by his son Luc and Trees Butaye-Parrein (my parents). The family has three children:Stijn (°1988), Jonas (°1991), Karel(°1997)

It took a long time after te war befire the 'Roeselarestraaat' (street to Roeselare) was repaired. At the time the street was made out of cobble stones. Due to continuous subsidences, the cobble stones were removed and the street was comletley renewew. Most od the cobble stones were purchased by the residents.
Every here and there the original cobble stones still can be found. At our Pondfarm, e.g., a small pathway is made out of those stones. If those stones could talk..., what war time stories they could tell us!

At the present time, a lot of war material still is found. Metal, iron objects which are embedded in the ground, only slowly surfaces. After a wet season the number of objects that surface is more numerous too. During the month of October(raising potatoes)and in April (after ploughing)the amount of surfacing war materials is the highest.

Munition, bombs and shells from the war that was found, before used to be collected 2 or 3 times a week by the special military service (at Houthulst). Nowadays we are to contact the local police. They first come to check and verify the finds. The military service eventually collects it later on. Since 2003 the local police makes a report of the finds. We obtained permission to give a yearly declaration of our finds.In this way we're able to make photos of our yearly "treasures".

Photos below:
- label that describes the finds: sort and amount, place where things are deposed.

- the Special Military Service collecting the finds at our place.

(English translation Frank Mahieu; if errors are found, please let us know, thanks)