Height: 6.5cm (2.5in)
Applied silver plaque inscribed 'Time Fuse / of 18lb / German Shrapnel Shell / Found in Ypres Cathedral / after the Bombardment / Oct 1914’ Raised on a turned walnut base.
German cavalry swept into Ypres on 7 October 1914 in the dash towards the Channel Ports. British troops from the 7th Division reached ‘Wipers’ on the 14th of that month, exhausted by a two-day march on the pavé from Ghent. An outpost line - the future Ypres Salient - was established to block the Germans line of advance to the coast. On 19 October the Germans, no doubt ruing their earlier abandoment of Ypres, launched a major operation to regain the city that lasted until 22 November. It was duiring this period that the presented relic struck St Martin’s Cathedral. The attack was to be the first of many bloody battles for the city and the route to the sea.