Importance Gallery

Ypres Ramparts CWGC Cemetery seen across the moat

The earliest settlement in this area is thought to have been near Langemarck in about AD960 and gradually a cluster of villages grew up around the Yperlee. As Ypres increased in importance it was occupied or fought over by different nationalities - English, French, Dutch and the Austrians. In the late 1600s Vauban built a series of ramparts and fortifications and Ypres became a walled city surrounded by a moat, as it is today. The cemetery has 153 UK, 11 Australian, 10 Canadian, and 14 New Zealand burials. The approach path is named after Rose Coombs, the IWM author whose Before Endeavours Fade book was one of the first reference works for the area. Date: 2011

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

Royal Ordnance Factory, Patricroft, Lancashire

Royal Ordnance Factory, Patricroft, Eccles, near Manchester, Lancashire, England. Showing men manufacturing Canons - World War One - The sign reads: Important Copy of Telegram - Received from Ministry of Munitions - Mr Lloyd George wishes to impress upon all concerned the immense importance of greatest possible OUTPUT OF HEAVY SHELL OF ALL NATURES in order to consolidate and extend the victorious progress of the British Armies in France. Date: 1910s

© The Wentworth Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

The Magnetron Valve by G. H. Davis

A set of diagrams demonstrating what a magnetron valve is, and why it is of such importance to radar. The magnetron valve was used in the Second World War to give Allied forces superior radars, and, after being offered to the USA to secure their support, it was described by America as "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores". It should be noted that the prototype magnetron valve was around six hundred times more powerful than anything in American production.
1946

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans