Memorial to the French Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The face commemorates the Division's victory at the Second Battle of Artois, in which the Moroccan Division broke the German front for the first time and took Hill 140, their objective.
Listed on the sides of the memorial are the sectors and battles where the Division fought:
1914
The Ardennes
August 28 — La Fosse a l'Eeau
August 30 — Bertoncourt
September 1 — Alincourt
The Marne
September 6 to 9 — Coizard, Mondement
December 30 — Ferme d'Alger
1915
Belgium
January 28 — Nieuport, la Grande Dune
Artois
May 9 — la Cote 140
June 16 — Ravin de Souchez
Champagne
September 25 — Butte de Souain, Bois Sabot
1916
the Somme
July 4 — Assevillers, Bellov en Santerre, Barleux
1917
Champagne
April 17 — Moronvilliers, Mont sans Nom, Auberive
Verdun
August 20 — Cumieres, Bois des Corbeaux, Forges Regnieville
1918
Lorraine
January 8 — Flirey
the Somme
April 26 — Villers-Bretonneux, Bois de Hangard
the Aisne
May 30 — Vauxbuin, Chazelle
June 12 — Ambleny
July 18 to 20 — Dommiers Chaudum
September 2 to 8 — Terny-Sorny, Moulin de Laffaux, Allemant
November 11 — Victory
November 17 — Entered Chateau-Salins © 2013, John M. Shea

Aux Morts de la Division Marocaine

Sans Peur Sans Pitié

A la mémoire

du Colonel Pein, Ct. de la 1re Brigade. du Colonel Cros, Ct. de la 2me Brigade

des Officiers, S/Officiers et Soldats de la Don Marocaine

Tombé ici glorieusement les 9, 10, & 11 Mai 1915

Le 9 Mai 1915 les Régiments de la Don Morocaine s'elancant a 10 Hres des tranchées de Berthonval et brisant de haute lutte la résistance des Allemands atteignirent d'un bond la cote 140, leur objectif, rompant pour la premiere fois le front ennemi



To the Dead of the Moroccan Division

Fearless Pitiless

To the Memory

of Colonel Pein, Commandant of the 1st Brigade, of Colonel Cros, Commandant of the 2nd Brigade,

of the Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers of the Moroccan Division

Gloriously fell here May 9, 10, & 11 1915

On May 9 1915 the Regiments of the Moroccan Division, darting at 10:00 hours from the Berthonval trenches, and breaking the resistance of the Germans in a hard-fought struggle, reached Hill 140, their object, breaking the enemy's front for the first time.

Other views: Detail, Left Side, Right Side

Saturday, June 5, 1915

"That day, June 5 [1915], was one of the bloodiest days of this futile battle of Artois.

The French communiqué of the following day claimed that our artillery had fired 500,000 projectiles. I can speak for those who lived through that hell, when I say that the German artillery gave us back just as many. . . .

Explosions filled the air, without ceasing. Strange, sharp, piercing sounds, first the whistling, sometimes like a cat meowing, then crashing down like a steady rain of steel."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the entry for June 5, 1915 from the notebooks of French infantry Corporal Louis Barthas. Barthas was a combatant in the Second Battle of Artois, a struggle from May 9 to June 25 for the high ground of Loretto Heights and Vimy Ridge, and the nearby villages: Carency, Souchez, Neuville-St.-Vaast. Ordered to seize the woods of Bois-de-Carré, Barthas and his men immediately came under artillery fire, and spent a stifling day under constant bombardment, the men calling one to another for assurance each was alive. One shell that struck near Barthas exhumed a corpse, immediately drawing thousands of flies, the flies that plagued the sector and the men in it.

Source

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 75, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014

Tags

1915-06-05, 1915, June, Second Battle of Artois