Polygon Wood: Where the Australians Took the Ridge
The wood is real. It still stands, on the same ground where it stood in 1917. The trees are different, the original wood was destroyed entirely by four years of shellfire, but the shape of the landscape, the gentle rise towards the east, the artificial mound at the centre that the Belgians once used for rifle practice, all of it is still there.
On 26 September 1917, the Australian 4th and 5th Divisions attacked Polygon Wood as part of the Battle of Polygon Wood, the second phase of Field Marshal Haig's Third Ypres offensive. They took it.
It cost them more than 5,000 casualties in a single day.
Why Polygon Wood was worth fighting for
By September 1917, the British and Commonwealth forces had been pushing east from Ypres for two months. The objective was the Passchendaele ridge, high ground that would deny the Germans observation over the Ypres Salient and, in Haig's plan, open a route to the Belgian coast.
Polygon Wood sat on the approach to that ridge. The wood itself offered cover for defenders. The butte, a raised earthen mound used before the war as a firing stop for a Belgian military rifle range, gave a clear line of sight across the surrounding ground.
The German defensive system here was built around a series of concrete pillboxes positioned to provide overlapping fields of fire. Taking the wood meant clearing those pillboxes one by one, under fire, across ground that had been shelled into a cratered wasteland.
The Australians did it. The 26 September attack was one of the most efficiently executed operations of the entire Third Ypres campaign, careful preparation, precise artillery coordination, limited objectives. It worked. That does not make the cost any less.
What you can still see
The butte. The raised mound at the centre of the site is the original Belgian rifle range stop. It survived the war because it was made of packed earth and did not collapse under shellfire the way structures did. The Buttes New British Cemetery is built into the side of the butte. Walk to the top and you can see east towards Tyne Cot, west towards Ypres. This is the view the German defenders had in September 1917.
Buttes New British Cemetery. 2,229 burials, the majority unidentified. The cemetery is built into the face of the butte, terraced in a way that makes it unlike any other cemetery in the Salient. The New Zealand Memorial at the rear commemorates 378 New Zealanders who died in the Salient with no known grave.
The wood itself. The current trees are post-war regrowth and replanting, not the original wood. But the perimeter follows the same line, and walking the edge of the wood you are walking the same ground the attacking troops moved across on 26 September 1917.
The polygonal shape. The wood was named for its geometric shape, a rough polygon visible on pre-war maps. That shape is still largely intact. On a map, you can still see why it was called what it was called.
The Australian connection
Polygon Wood sits at the centre of the Australian experience of the Ypres Salient. The 4th and 5th Australian Divisions attacking here on 26 September were part of the ANZAC Corps under General Sir William Birdwood. Two days later, on 28 September, Australian forces attacked further east at Broodseinde and captured the high ground near what is now Tyne Cot Cemetery.
For Australian visitors tracing the WW1 experience in Belgium, the circuit of Polygon Wood, Tyne Cot, and Zonnebeke covers the key sites of the September-October 1917 Australian operations in the Salient.
Practical information
Location: Zonnebeke, approximately 8km east of Ypres on the N332. Signed from the main road.
Opening hours: open year-round, no entrance fee. The cemetery is maintained by the CWGC.
Time needed: 30-45 minutes for the butte, the cemetery, and a walk of the wood perimeter.
Combining with other sites: Tyne Cot Cemetery is 2km east. Together they form a natural half-day circuit of the Australian September 1917 battlefield.
Frequently asked questions
What is the butte at Polygon Wood? An artificial earthen mound built before the war as the firing stop for a Belgian military rifle range. It survived the war largely intact because it was made of packed earth rather than masonry or timber. The Buttes New British Cemetery is built into its side.
Who fought at Polygon Wood in 1917? The Battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917 was primarily an Australian operation, the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions of the ANZAC Corps, supported by British units on the flanks.
Is Polygon Wood free to visit? Yes. The site and cemetery are open year-round at no charge.
How does Polygon Wood relate to Tyne Cot? Both are sites of the Australian September 1917 operations in the Ypres Salient. Polygon Wood was taken on 26 September. Tyne Cot sits on the ridge captured at the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October 1917, two weeks later. Both are 2km apart and naturally visited together.
Polygon Wood is visited on the Full-Day Flanders Fields tour and can be included in a Custom Tour.
Written by Niels Declercq, private WW1 battlefield guide based in Bruges.
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