Hill 60

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About Hill 60

Hill 60 is a small rise in the Zwarteleen district of Zillebeke, cut by the railway between Ypres and Comines. As one of the few high points on the plain, it was fought over from the spring of 1915, when British sappers blew mines under the German positions and took the place for a few weeks.

In the following two years the fighting moved underground. British, Canadian and Australian tunnelling companies dug deep galleries beneath the German lines, while the Germans dug their own. On 7 June 1917, at the start of the Battle of Messines, the mines beneath Hill 60 and beneath the Caterpillar exploded together.

The park was preserved after the war, as far as nature allows, in the condition it was left. There are grass-covered craters, remains of concrete bunkers and memorials, including that of the 1ª Companhia Australiana de Túneis at the entrance. Beneath the ground still lie the bodies of many British and German soldiers who were trapped in the collapsed tunnels.

On the other side of the railway is the Caterpillar Crater, a crater almost 80 metres in diameter, now a round lake surrounded by trees. A short path links the two parts, and information panels explain what happened at each.