Original Belgian WWI Yser 1914 – 1918 Trench Art Large Shell Fragment Piece with Shrapnel Balls Original Items

Original Item. Only One Available. This is a tremendous shell fragment recovered from the Yser Front in Belgium which saw heavy fighting from October 1914 until November 1918. Following the Battle of Yser in October 1914 when the Belgian Army succeeded in stopping the German advance, the front was held mostly statically for the rest of the war.

The shell fragment is very large, roughly 4½ x 11½ x 1¾” with the height coming from the shell’s curvature. The shell’s driving band is still retained in the majority of where it is visible. There have been several holes drilled for placement of small clusters of shrapnel balls, of which only one cluster of 4 remains. There is a small ribbon-shaped plaque riveted to the side of the shell reading YSER 1914-1918.

This is a stellar piece of trench art that will fit very well in any WWI trench art/artillery collection. Comes ready for further research and display.

The Battle of the Yser was a battle of the First World War that took place in October 1914 between the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide, along a 35 km (22 mi) stretch of the Yser River and the Yperlee Canal, in Belgium. The front line was held by a large Belgian force, which halted the German advance in a costly defensive battle.

The victory at the Yser allowed Belgium to retain a small strip of territory, with Germany in control of 95 per cent of Belgian territory, which made King Albert a Belgian national hero, sustained national pride and provided a venue for commemorations of heroic sacrifice for the next hundred years.