Menin Gate to the east of the city. The German army eventually surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war. The Second Battle of Ypres marked a second German attempt to take the city in April 1915. The third battle is more commonly referred to as Passchendaele, but this 1917 battle was a complex five-month engagement. The fourth and fifth battles occurred during 1918. British and Commonwealth soldiers often passed through the Menenpoort on their way to the front lines with some 300,000 of them being killed in the Ypres Salient. 90,000 of these soldiers have no
Menin Road South Military Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery graves were lost in later fighting or could not be found after the war. As these are known casualties (not "missing"), they are included in the total figure for burials in the cemetery and are not recorded on the Menin Gate. The cemetery holds the grave of acting-Captain Thomas Riversdale Colyer-Fergusson, of the Northamptonshire Regiment who was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour "in the face of the enemy" in the Commonwealth. Menin Road South Military Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery Menin Road South Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead