Frank_East Posted 27 May , 2003 Share Posted 27 May , 2003 Memorials such as Thiepval and Vimy Ridge were large projects unveiled in the 1930s but which others were the last to be unveiled before the outbreak of the Second World War. Am I right in thinking that Vimy Ridge was the last large memorial to be unveiled prior to the Second World War? Regards Frank East. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 28 May , 2003 Share Posted 28 May , 2003 Frank, you are right. The memorial at Vimy was unveiled 26th July, 1936. Thiepval was unveiled 31st July, 1932. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolas G. Posted 28 May , 2003 Share Posted 28 May , 2003 Hello, Villers-Bretonneux / Fouilloy Australian National Memorial was unveiled on 22 July 1938. Regards - Nicolas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 28 May , 2003 Share Posted 28 May , 2003 The Villers Bretenneux Memorial barely survived 2 years before being damaged by war During the 1940 German invasion of France the Australian Memorial and adjoining CWGC cemetery was briefly used by French colonial troops as a semi-fortified position. The memorial tower was straffed by a ME109 and I you walk round to the back you can clearly see the scars where machine gun bullets gouged the stonework. A number of the headstones also show battle scars. Curious to know if any other Western Front Great War cemeteries and memorials were used as defensive positions and damaged by fighting during WW2? Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 28 May , 2003 Share Posted 28 May , 2003 The Menin Gate was damaged by gunfire and still bears the scars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 Hello, Villers-Bretonneux / Fouilloy Australian National Memorial was unveiled on 22 July 1938. Regards - Nicolas. Hi Nicolas One reason that I recall the Villers Brettonuex Memorial being unveiled in 1938 was that Lt-General Sir Talbot Hobbs ex commander of the 5th AIF Division & the Australian Corps, died on a ship from Australia as he was on his way to the unveiling ceremony. Regards Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 Curious to know if any other Western Front Great War cemeteries and memorials were used as defensive positions and damaged by fighting during WW2? The U.S. memorial at the Butte de Montsec was allegedly the scene of a German defensive skirmish in 1944. Someone told me that the memorial had been used as a MG emplacement (I actually found several 1938 dated Mauser cases in the area several years ago!). Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 The memorial of the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company (IIRC) on Hill 60 has bullet holes from the fighting in the area in May 1940. Several monuments were also destroyed by the Germans (Steenstraete etc.) because the texts on it were too anti-German. Also the texts on the Demarcation stones (here the invader was brought to a stand-still IIRC) were erased in WW2... Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Parker Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 There were shrapnel scars on the outer side of the Indian memorial at Neuve Chapelle when I was there a couple of years ago. During the retreat in 1940 the British blew the road bridge over the moat in front of the Menin Gate. I have see a nice photograph German engineers repairing the damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 The memorial of the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company (IIRC) on Hill 60 has bullet holes from the fighting in the area in May 1940. Several monuments were also destroyed by the Germans (Steenstraete etc.) because the texts on it were too anti-German. Also the texts on the Demarcation stones (here the invader was brought to a stand-still IIRC) were erased in WW2... Jan Hi Jan I think it was in one of Laffin's books that he showed one of the Australian monuments that the Germans took down in WW2. I believe it was the 2nd AIF Division memorial which showed an Australian soldier standing on & bayonetting a German Eagle, so when the Germans came through that area in WW2 it was probably no big surprise that they took umbrage to it. After the war it was replaced with a more modest statue. Cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 29 May , 2003 Author Share Posted 29 May , 2003 Andrew I think the memorial which was destroyed by the Germans is the one which celebrated the Australians taking Mont St Quentin which is situated on the lefthand side of the N17 going north on the outskirts of Peronne. The "Mont" is rather misleading and I think refers to the slightly higher ground on the righthand side of the road. Regarding damage inflicted on some memorials during the occupation,I wonder if this was done as a deliberate political policy or was initiated and carried out by local unit commanders in the euphoria of victory. I am aware that the destruction of the Clairiere de l'Armistice at Rethondes was said to have been instructed by the Chancellor himself. Regards Frank East Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 And of course they destroyed the one of Alsatian sandstone at Compiegne that depicts a sword thrust through the German eagle. Being Germans they took all the pieces home where they were recovered by the French and you can see the monument today. I suspect they could not have been terribly fond of the inscription in front of the railroad car where the armistice was signed. Of course the one there now is a duplicate. It reads At this place died the criminal pride of the German Empire crushed by the free peoples it sought to enslave. They blew another up in the Salient but I cannot remember which one at the moment, there is a picture of the dynamiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Parker Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 Paul The memorial blown up under German supervision in Flanders during WWII was A Belgian?? memorial commemorating those that died during the first gas attack by the Germans in 1915. I can't remember the whole story off the top of my head by I believe the Germans ordered the Belgians to blow it up and they deliberately bungled it, so the Germans did it themselves the next day. The memorial was replaced after WWII but is now a simple cross. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 29 May , 2003 Share Posted 29 May , 2003 The memorial to which Geoff refers was the one at Steenstraat, blown up by the Germans because they objected to the wording on the memorial as well as to the statuary - gassed soldiers in agony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hone Posted 30 May , 2003 Share Posted 30 May , 2003 Wasn't the Princess Pat's Memorial at Hill 60 damaged or destroyed for referring to German atrocities? The WWI Memorial in the station square at Arras has bullet/shell fragment damage from 1940. wasn't the unveiling of Vimy Ridge the only major overseas engagement undertaken by Edward VIII during his brief reign? When did the Poizieres Memorial get unveiled? And wasn't there suposed to be another one, near St Quentin, perhaps, that never got built. I think that was due to economic forces rather than military/political events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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