Arras Memorial
Location
The Arras Memorial is in the Faubourg-d’Amiens Cemetery, which is in the Boulevard du général de Gaulle in the western part of the town of Arras. The cemetery is near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway station.
Follow the signs for the Citadelle.
| GPS | N | E | OSM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decimal | 50.28729 | 2.76088 | Map |
There is now a large car park opposite the memorial. Use this to visit the memorial as well as the citadelle. It is also possible to get a free shuttle bus into the centre : Ma citadine.
Historical Information
The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917.
The memorial commemorates almost 35 000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7th August 1918 (the eve of the Advance to Victory) and have no known grave.
Included amongst them is Walter Tull (Bay 7) who was the British Army’s first black officer, and the English Football League’s second black professional player.
The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918.
Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick.
Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers Bretonneux.
A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.
The Arras Flying Services Memorial
Commemorates more than 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave.
Le Mur des Fusillés
Le Mur des Fusillés
Taking the road to the left of the Memorial and around to the rear of the citadel you come to the Mur des Fusillés which commemorates over 200 partisans from the various Resistance Groups shot by the Germans from 1941 to 1944.
It acts as a sober counterpoint to our own Memorial.
On 8th April 2007 as a mark of respect for those who had died fighting for the town, the Mayor of Arras: Monsieur Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe, inaugurated a new system of illumination for the memorial.