Location
The French village of Esquelbecq lies 24.8km from Dunkirk, 60km from Lille and is 16.7 km from Oost-Cappel on the Belgian border.
Background
The current French language name of the village derives from the Flemish Ekelsbeke, “the stream with acorns”, for it lies on the River Yser in an area that was largely wooded. Its history can be traced back to the 5th Century (first named as such in the 9th Century), but a Roman road passes through the area (more or less on the route of the present D52). For centuries the de Gistelles and de Gurnoval families owned the area, and as with many other towns and villages of this area is suffered greatly in fighting in the post-revolutionary period in France. A railway station of the Chemin de Fer du Nord was opened about 1.5km west of the village centre in 1848, which encouraged a certain amount of growth and minor industrialisation.
In 1911 the population was 1705, and by 2007 it was not so different at 2206.
Esquelbecq in the Great War
Once the phase of mobile warfare slowed in October 1914 and position of the Western Front settled down, Esquelbecq lay some 50km west of the Ypres sector, far enough away from enemy artillery to be safe from virtually all but aerial attack. As such became an ideal location for billeting of troops who were not required for immediate support of fighting (for example, those at rest or in training, or providing manual labour in the rear areas) and for logistics. The chateau was suitable for the facilities needed by the headquarters of a large formation, although it was not used for this purpose for some time. VIII Corps occupied it on 13 June 1917, followed in succession by V Corps, II Corps, and X Corps. The latter vacated it in July 1918.
According to the Commonweath War Graves Commission, “[A] cemetery was opened in April 1918 during the early stages of the German offensive in Flanders, when the 2nd Canadian and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Esquelbecq. It was closed in September 1918, although one French grave was added in 1919 and one British soldier from 1916 was added later from an isolated site.”
According to the war diary of the 3rd Australian CCS, the site selected for it (grid reference C.7.b.3.4) proved unsatisfactory so it was instead set up at B.6.c.8.0).
As for local casualties, 80 Esquelbecquois lost their lives in the war, 20 of whom perished in the opening clashes of 1914. They are commemorated at the local war memorial, inaugurated in 1921 and situated on the side of the village church.
Esquelbecq is perhaps better known as an important WW2 site, and for the most horrifying of reasons, for it was nearby that 80 British and French POWs were murdered togther here by Waffen-SS soldiers in 1940. The site of this atrocity is most moving and worth a visit, but is outside the scope of the Long, Long Trail.
Visiting Esquelbecq today
If travelling to or from the United Kingdom, the village is best approached from the A25 motorway, taking exit 15 towards Wormhout (3km ) on to Esquelbecq (another 2 km).
It is today a very pleasant village, somewhat larger and with more facilities than many others in this area. They include a Post Office (rue de la Gare), a pharmacy, shops, cafes and bars, and a friterie on main square.
The chateau and its gardens can be visited at certain times: see its website (link below)
The village’s tourist office is located at 9 place Alphonse Bergerot (telephone within France 03 28 62 8857).
Esquelbecq Military Cemetery lies on rue du Souvenir, about 1km west of the village centre. CWGC adds, “The cemetery was used again during the Second World War, mainly for the burial of those killed during the German advance of May 1940 and the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. Esquelbecq Military Cemetery contains 578 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 47 from the Second World War. There are also 11 French and German burials. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens”.
The earliest-dated grave in the military cemetery relates to a period long before the Casualty Clearing Stations came to Esquelbecq in 1918. In Plot I, row B, grave 1a lies Private 4/9170 George Hunter, a Stockton-on-Tees man who served with the Special Reserve of the Durham Light Infantry. He had a sad history. George went to France and the regiment’s 2nd Battalion in August 1915 but was charged in December 1915 with careless self-inflicted wounding of a finger of his left hand and sentenced to a period of Field PUnishment. He went absent without leave in early 1916 and was given a suspended prison sentence. George deserted on 27 April 1916 and somehow managed to return to England, where he was arrested on 20 May. After a court-martial, in which he was said that he had gone absent on numerus occasions, he was executed on 2 July 1916. George was married and his widow was eligible for a full pension, according to his service record. He is presumably the man “added later [to the cemetery] from an isolated site”, according to the CWGC information.
[At time of writing, the CWGC wbsite gives this man’s date of death incorrectly as 1916: Private 242154 Jeremiah Weathers of the 11th (Service) Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, who died of wounds on 24 July 1918 having been admitted to 3rd Canadian CCS.] Other burials begin from 26 April 1918.
Links
More places in the Gazetteer of the Western Front
Esquelbecq’s website
Chateau d’Esquelbecq