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
Garden of the Missing in Action the ""23 Who Went Down at Sea" of May 1941. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, over 400 Israeli soldiers have been declared "Missing in Action." The construction of the Garden of the Missing on Mt. Herzl was initiated and headed by Moshe Oren, as head of the Ministry of Defense Commemoration Division. An annual memorial service for the Missing Soldiers of Israel takes place in the garden's main plaza on the Seventh of Adar, the day in the Hebrew calendar which marks the traditional date of the death of Moses, whose grave is known only