The Breton Memorial

Getting there

Coming out of Ieper along the N 369 you will pass Essex Farm Cemetery on your right. Continue towards Boezinge where you will turn right towards Pilkem.

A short distance along the road and just before you turn left at the crossroads for Artillery Wood Cemetery (Standard CWGC Sign) you will see this calvary and dolmen on your left at the crossroads. Carrefour is the French word for crossroads.

The group of memorials commemorates the soldiers of the French 45th (Algerian) Division and 87th Territorial Division who fell here during the first gas attack on 22 April 1915

The 87th Territorial Division hailed from Brittany and was composed of reservists rather than younger conscripts. They were known fondly as Les pépères, or grandads.

Following the war pilgrimages started took place annually from St Brieuc in Brittany and because in the years following 1923 many of those who had fallen were repatriated to their village cemeteries it was thought fitting that a place of memory should be created.

The 16th century Breton calvaire was brought from Louargat, west of Guingamp.

The dolmen was brought from Hénanbihen, west of St Malo. The capstone weighs 6 tonnes. The word dolmen derives, I believe, from the Breton meaning a stone table. In prehistoric times it would have been part of a communal burial site.

The blocks of stone which surround the garden are also from Brittany and are, for me anyway, somewhat representative of a stone circle and thus complementing the dolmen. Some are engraved with the names of the regiments who fought here.

There is also an orientation table showing where each of the regiments were situated.

If you turn left here at the crossroads you will come to Artillery Wood Cemetery where you will find the graves of the two war poets: Francis Ledwidge and Ellis Evans (Hedd Wyn).

Artillery Wood

Other French and Belgian memorials to the gas attack can be found at Steenstraat.

Steenstraat

The Canadian Memorial is at Vancouver Corner at Sint Juliaan.

Vancouver Corner