Sint-Elooi

Not to be confused with Mont-Saint-Éloi.

Sint-Elooi is a small village, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Ypres in the Flemish province of West-Vlaanderen in Belgium. The former municipality is now part of Ypres. Though Sint-Elooi is the Dutch and only official name, the village's French name, St. Eloi, is most commonly used in English due to its role in World War I. The village and the nearby locations of Voormezele and Hollebeke were merged into Zillebeke in 1970 and into Ypres in 1976.

Name

The village takes its name from Saint Eligius (also Eloy or Loye, French: Éloi, c. 588–660 who worked for twenty years to convert the pagan population of Flanders to Christianity.

History

World War I

Map showing the location of Sint-Elooi/St Eloi south of Ypres, as well as the front line of the Ypres Salient as it was in June 1916.

In World War I, like other parts of the Ypres Salient, the village was the site of theBattles of Ypres between German and Allied forces. In the spring of 1915, there was constant underground fighting in the Ypres Salient at Hooge, Hill 60, Railway Wood, Sanctuary Wood, St Eloi and The Bluff, which required the deployment of new drafts of tunnellers for several months after the formation of the first eight tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers. The Germans exploded mines under the area known as The Mound, just south-east of St Eloi in March 1915. From 14–15 March 1915, units of the British 27th Division participated in the Action of St Eloi, where the British suffered some 500 casualties. A month later, on 14 April 1915, the Germans fired another mine producing a crater over 20 m (66 ft) in diameter. Counter-mining activity by the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers began at St Eloi in spring 1915. Much of the mining in this sector was done by the 177th Tunnelling Company and the 172nd Tunnelling Company.

The Battle of St Eloi Craters was fought from 27 March to 16 April 1916. The attack over the soggy terrain was the first major engagement for the 2nd Canadian Division. The battle began with the detonation of six mines beneath German lines on 27 March. The British soldiers rose from their positions in the cold mud and attacked, quickly capturing three craters and the third German line. By 16 April, the battle ended with the Germans in control of the battlefield, as they had been at its start. HMCS St. Eloi was later named after the battle.

Plan of the British deep mine at St Eloi, part of the series of mines placed in the Battle of Messines.

Mining and counter-mining at St Eloi continued at a pace. In preparation of the Battle of Messines in 1917, the British began a mining offensive against the German lines around Wijtschate. Twenty-six deep mines were eventually dug by Tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers and detonated simultaneously on 7 June 1917, creating 19 large craters. The joint explosion of the mines in the Battle of Messines ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. The largest of these mines was at St Eloi, dug by the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company. The work was begun with a deep shaft named Queen Victoria in the area of Bus House Cemetery, behind a farm-house called Bus House by the British troops (). From there, the gallery was extended to the area of the mine chamber. It was set 42 metres (138 ft) below ground, at the end of a gallery 408 metres (1,339 ft) long and charged with 95,600 pounds (43,400 kg) of ammonal. Building preparations had started on 16 August 1915, and the mine was completed on 11 June 1916. When the St Eloi deep mine was fired by the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company on 7 June 1917, it destroyed some of the earlier craters from 1916, although a double crater can still be seen. (see image) The successful detonation allowed the capture of the German lines at St Eloi by the British 41st Division.

The wooded ridge along the Ypres-Comines Canal, about 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) east of Sint-Elooi/St Eloi and 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) south of Hill 60, halfway in between Voormezele and Hollebeke, was known as The Bluff by the British.

World War II

The area was fought over again during the Second World War. On 27 May 1940, the 17th Brigade of the British 5th Infantry Division stopped the advance of three German divisions at Hill 60, which enabled the British to make a general withdrawal towards St. Eloi, Kemmel and Dikkebus.

Memorials

On a small square in the centre of Sint-Elooi stands the 'Monument to the St Eloi Tunnellers' which was unveiled on 11 November 2001. The brick plinth bears transparent plaques with details of the mining activities by 172nd Tunnelling Company and an extract from the poem Trenches: St Eloi by the war poet T.E. Hulme (1883–1917). There is a flagpole with the British flag next to it, and in 2003 an artillery gun was added to the memorial.

Popular culture

• During World War I, David Bomberg painted Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi, which bears a reference to both St Eloi/Sint-Elooi and the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company.
• The war poet T.E. Hulme (1883–1917) wrote the poem Trenches: St Eloi (online).
• The story Herbert West–Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft mentions the town as the site of a hospital where the titular character performs experiments during World War I.

Gallery

• RJB18 – St Eloi.jpg

  Aerial view of the mine craters at St Eloi, 1 April 1916

• The Battle of Passchendaele, July-november 1917 Q5876.jpg

  Royal Garrison Artillery gunners outside a shelter at St Eloi, 11 August 1917

• The Battle of Passchendaele, July-november 1917 Q5870.jpg

  British officers in a captured German armoured observation post on a ruined house in St Eloi, 11 August 1917

• The Battle of Passchendaele, July-november 1917 Q5879.jpg

  St. Eloi, 11 August 1917. A shell is bursting in the background

• 

  Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi by David Bomberg

See also

• Battle of Messines (1917)
• Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917)
• List of Canadian battles during the First World War
• St. Eloi Mountain, Canada