Location near Masnières, France | ||
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Address 123 D644, 59159 Masnières, France | ||
The Masnières Newfoundland Memorial is a Dominion of Newfoundland war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First Battle of Cambrai, of World War I. Located at the north end of the town of Masnières, France, the memorial commemorates the participation of the Newfoundlanders in the taking and defense of the town during the First Battle of Cambrai between the 20th of November and 2 December 1917.
Contents
The battle
In November 1917 the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was one of four battalions of the 88th Brigade, British 29th Division and the battle plans for the Regiment for the Battle of Cambrai was to follow up the initial tank-led attack on the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line and to capture a strategic section of the St. Quentin Canal and the town of Masnières. The town was a strategic strong-point that protected several crossings over the canal that needed to be captured to give the British cavalry a crossing en route to their objective, the city of Cambrai in a subsequent phase of the battle.
At First, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (along with the rest of the 29th Division) were initially held in reserve and were sent forward to 'mop up' pockets of German resistance in the Hindenburg Line and Hindenburg Support Line that remained after the initial tank led attack saw positive results.
Memorial
The memorial is one of six memorials erected by the Newfoundland government following the First World War. Five were erected in France and Belgium and the sixth at Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The memorials are all centrally identical, featuring a bronze caribou, the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, standing atop a cairn of Newfoundland granite. The mounds are also surrounded by native Newfoundland plants.
The Masnières Memorial is situated on the west side of the D644 road, at the north end of the village of Masnières. The Caribou is surrounded by a small park, roughly in the shape of a parallelogram. The Monument itself is roughly in the centre of the park; at the cairn's base is a circular garden and, surrounding that, is a level lawn of grass with several maple trees at points around the three sides away from the road.