The Bourlon Wood Memorial, near
Bourlon
Bourlon () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
Geography
A farming village located 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Arras on the D16 road, just yards from the A26 autoroute.
Populati ...
, France, is a
Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the
Canadian Corps during the final months of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
; a period also known as
Canada's Hundred Days, part of the
Hundred Days Offensive.
Historical background
The memorial at the Bourlon Wood commemorates the final series of battles the Canadian Corps fought in the latter phases of the
Hundred Days Offensive (also known as
Canada's Hundred Days) during the final months of the
Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Particularly celebrated at Bourlon Wood are the Canadian victories the
Battle of the Canal du Nord
The Battle of Canal du Nord was part of the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War by the Allies against German positions on the Western Front. The battle took place in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, along an incomplete portion of ...
and the ensuing fight for the villages of
Bourlon
Bourlon () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
Geography
A farming village located 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Arras on the D16 road, just yards from the A26 autoroute.
Populati ...
and
Marquion
Marquion () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas region ...
and their flushing the
German forces and Bourlon Wood, and the subsequent 'Pursuit to Mons' during which the Canadians participated in the liberation of the French cities of
Cambrai,
Denain
Denain (; pcd, Dnain) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Denain had a population of 19,877, on a land area of 11.52 km² (4.448 sq mi).
It is the largest of 47 communes which comprise the Communauté d'agglomération ...
(during the
Battle of the Selle
The Battle of the Selle (17–25 October 1918) was a battle between Allied forces and the German Army, fought during the Hundred Days Offensive of World War I.
Prelude
After the Second Battle of Cambrai, the Allies advanced almost and liber ...
),
Valenciennes
Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France.
It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...
and finally
Mons in Belgium on
11 November 1918.
Monument design
Site selection
At the end of the war, The
Imperial War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
granted Canada eight sites - five in France and three in Belgium - on which to erect memorials. Each site represented a significant Canadian engagement in the war and for this reason it was originally decided that each battlefield would be treated equally and graced with identical monuments.
[ 205] The
Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was formed in November 1920 and decided a competition would be held to select the design of the memorial that would be used at the eight European sites.
In October 1922, the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer
Walter Seymour Allward
Walter Seymour Allward, (18 November 1874 – 24 April 1955) was a Canadian monumental sculptor best known for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Featuring expressive classical figures within modern compositions, Allward's monuments evoke them ...
was selected as the winner of the competition, and the submission of Frederick Chapman Clemesha placed second. The commission decided Allward's monumental design would be used at
Vimy Ridge
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of ...
in France as it was the most dramatic location.
[ 66–69] Despite a consideration that Alward's monument at Vimy could stand alone as the sole monument to the Canadian efforts in Europe
Clemesha's 'Brooding Soldier' design was selected for the remaining seven sites but was later, for a number of reasons, erected only at
St. Julien in Belgium.
The remaining six memorials, to be built on sites at Passchendaele and
Hill 62 in Belgium and at
Le Quesnel,
Dury,
Courcelette and Bourlon Wood in France would each received a modest memorial designed under the supervision of architect and advisor to the Battlefield Memorials Commission,
Percy Erskine Nobbs
Percy Erskine Nobbs (August 11, 1875 – November 5, 1964) was a Canadian architect who was born in Haddington, East Lothian, and trained in the United Kingdom. Educated at the Edinburgh Collegiate School and Edinburgh University, he spent ...
.
[ Christie p. 46][ Bland] Situated on key points of the battlefield they memorialize, the central feature of the memorials would be a 13 tonne cube-shaped block of white-grey granite quarried near
Stanstead Quebec. The blocks are essentially identical, carved with wreathes on two opposing sides and inscribed with the phrase ''"HONOUR TO THE CANADIANS WHO ON THE FIELDS OF FLANDERS AND FRANCE FOUGHT IN THE CAUSE OF THE ALLIES WITH SACRIFICE AND DEVOTION"'' around the base. Though uniform in design, they are differentiated in the brief English and French descriptions of the battle they commemorate inscribed on their sides and the small parks that surround the memorial blocks, which vary in shape and layout.
The Bourlon Wood Canadian Memorial it is located adjacent to the town of
Bourlon
Bourlon () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
Geography
A farming village located 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Arras on the D16 road, just yards from the A26 autoroute.
Populati ...
, about west of Cambrai,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, and was the site of a strategic German strong point in an elevated location, concealed in the forest which was obliterated in the fighting. One British soldier, who had to bivouac in the area not long after the ferocious battle, recalled, "It wasn't much like a wood, more like a lot of crooked matchsticks stuck in the ground".
[Bullock, A S, ''Gloucestershire Between the Wars: A Memoir'', The History Press, 2009, page 78]
Location and design
The memorial site is situated on land donated by the
Comte de Franqueville, the Mayor of Bourlon at the War's end. It is found at the end of the 'Avenue du Bois' in the southeastern corner of the village of Bourlon.
The park is a beautiful series of terraces lined with ancient
lime tree
''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...
s that were nursed back to health after having been shattered by
shellfire during the battle for Bourlon Wood. Two parallel paths ascend from the base up to a plateau on the hilltop where the Canadian
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
block monument is set in a glade of lawn upon a low circular
flagstone
Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other co ...
terrace. Through the trees, the view from the top of the site looks back over the former battlefields that approached Bourlon, across which the Canadians advanced through August and September 1918, and Vimy Ridge can be seen on the northwestern horizon.
At Bourlon Wood, the inscription on the monument reads:
''THE CANADIAN CORPS
ON 27TH SEP. 1918 FORCED
THE CANAL DU NORD AND
CAPTURED THIS HILL.
THEY TOOK CAMBRAI,
DENAIN, VALENCIENNES
& MONS; THEN MARCHED
TO THE RHINE WITH
THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES''
Images
External links
Bourlon Wood Memorial - Veteran's Affairs Canada
References
{{World War I War Memorials in France
Military history of Canada
Canadian military memorials and cemeteries
Canada in World War I
World War I memorials in France