| Canadian Le Quesnel (Battle of Amiens) Memorial | |
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| Canada | |
 Canadian Le Quesnel (Battle of Amiens) Memorial |
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| For the Canadian participation in the Battle of Amiens between the 8th and 11th of August 1918 and commemoration of the Canadian dead in that battle. | |
| Location | 49°46′29″N 2°36′34″E / 49.77472°N 2.60944°ECoordinates: 49°46′29″N 2°36′34″E / 49.77472°N 2.60944°E near Le Quesnel, France |
| THE CANADIAN CORPS ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND STRONG ON 8TH AUGUST 1918 ATTACKED BETWEEN HOURGES AND VILLERS-BRETONNEUX AND DROVE THE ENEMY EASTWARD FOR EIGHT MILES | |
The Le Quesnel Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the 1918 Battle of Amiens during World War I. The battle marked the beginning of a 96 day period that saw the crumbling of the German Army and ultimately the Armistice that ended the war The memorial is located just to the southwest of the village of Le Quesnel (from which it takes its name), on the road between Amiens and Roye, in northern France.
The location for the memorial was selected as it was the deepest point the Canadians (and indeed any of the Allied armies) had reached at the end of the first day of the Battle of Amiens; 8 miles or 13 kilometres into German-held territory.
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Monument
Location & Design
The Le Quesnel Memorial site is a small keyhole shaped park situated beside the D934 highway between Amiens and Roye on the southwest fringe of Le Quesnel village. Fittingly, maple trees and a hedge of holly line the edges of the park and well kept lawns and stone pathways surround the low circular flagstone terrace that the granite memorial block rests on.
Selection
At the end of the war, The Imperial War Graves Commission granted Canada 8 sites, 3 in France and 5 in Belgium, on which to erect memorials. Each site represented a significant Canadian engagement and for this reason it was originally decided that each battlefield would be treated equally and graced with identical monuments.[1] The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was formed in November 1920 to discuss the process and conditions for holding a memorial competition for the European sites.[2] In October 1922, the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward was selected as the winner of the competition, and the submission of Frederick Chapman Clemesha placing second. The commission selected Vimy Ridge in France as the preferred site of Allward's design.[3] Clemesha's Brooding Soldier design was selected for the remaining sites but was later, for a number of reasons, erected only at St. Julien in Belgium. The remaining sites receiving similar simple commemorative granite block inscribed with a brief description of the battle in both English and French.
Notes
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Le Quesnel |
- ^ Busch, Briton Cooper (2003). Canada and the Great War: Western Front Association Papers. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 077352570X. 205
- ^ "Design Competition". Veteran Affairs Canada. 2007-03-25. http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/vimy/sg/01_artwork/04_competition. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
- ^ Vance, Jonathan Franklin (1997). Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 0774806001. 66–69
External links
- Le Quesnel Memorial - Veteran Affairs Canada
- Wikimapia satellite image of the Le Quesnel Memorial Site
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