Menin Gate exit simply cut through the remains of the ramparts and crossed a moat. The gateway was by this time known as the Menenpoort, or Menin Gate in English, because the road leading through the gateway led to the small town of Menen. Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium, as had been called for in the Schlieffen Plan. By October 1914, the much battered Belgian Army broke the dykes on the Yser River to the north of the City to keep the
Ode of Remembrance the "Last Post". It is mostly read by a British serviceman. The recital is followed by a minute of silence. Like the Menin Gate, the Australian War Memorial incorporates the Ode into its Last Post Ceremony, where it is read by a member of the Australian Defence Force and is followed by a minute of silence and a bugler playing the Last Post. In 2018, at the centennial of the signing of the Armistice, plans were made to ring carillons and church bells across the British Commonwealth at local sundown, in reference to the line, "at the going down of