Maurice Duwez, battalion doctor took part in the Belgian army's withdrawal from Antwerp to the Yser during World War I and then stayed in the Westhoek on the front line.
Until November 1915, he was in the front line in the Lo and Diksmuide sectors. He was also known by his writer's name Max Deauville.
On 15 November, he left Alveringem for the front line. He passes Lampernisse, Oostkerke and, via numerous stops on muddy roads, he finally arrives at a crossroads. It is just a pond with a few houses crowded together at the edge.
One of these is the Lettenburg-cabaret aid station.
Lettenburg-cabaret is at the intersection of the lanes from Oostkerke to Oud-Stuivekenskerke and this one from Pervijze to Diksmuide.
The café is a small house with a windowless white wall along the enemy side.
There are bomb craters all around the house. The meadow between the house and the railway is still only a sieve.
The post is small and consists of the bellowing hall and a kind of shack that serves as a kitchen.
Below the floor is a shallow cellar, filled with straw this is the place for the most severely wounded, waiting to be taken away further.
On the first floor there are a few small bedrooms and an attic under a mansard roof.
The wind blows loose through the roof there. This is the nurses' quarters.
Every morning the owner comes to feed his four pigs. He is a dirty and dodgy-looking man,the men call him the spy.
Beyond Lettenburg, the road splits into two, left to Oud-Stuivekenskerke and right to join the towpath of the Ijzer at kilometre post 16, where in 1915 the famous Death Row will be dug.
From this death corridor stretcher bearers brought the wounded to Letten burg daily by stretcher.
Ambulances were waiting at the building to take the wounded soldiers to a field hospital as quickly as possible after the nurses had administered the first care.
Sometimes open coffins were set up against the walls and could not be seen.
The seriously injured who did not survive the transfer or died on the spot were buried in a nearby meadow.
As the war progressed, the roof of the hostel aid station was almost completely damaged.
Between Lampernisse and Oostkerke from June 1916 to July 1917, 5 Km from the Death Row, there was the surgical post of St John's Mill.
Seriously wounded who could still be operated on were brought here via the Oostkerke canal.
To make the transfer as painless as possible, the injured were placed in a barge at Lettenburg and dragged with a rope to the Sint-Jansmolen via this waterway.
Sources: Mr Nevens Herman, book ‘Oostkerke. View of a polder village‘ (Philippe Vindevogel)’ & Royal Museum of the Army and Military History