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
White House Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery was enlarged by concentrating graves from eight outlying cemeteries. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield who was also responsible for the nearby Menin Gate memorial. The cemetery contains the graves of some 1,163 soldiers of the Great War. Amongst these are the graves of four men executed by the Commonwealth military authorities – Private HH Chase of the Lancashire Fusiliers, executed for cowardice on 12 June 1915; Private WJ Turpie of the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, executed for desertion on 1 July 1915; and Privates RW Gawler and AE Eveleigh of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), executed