Attractions and Places To See around Noyelles-Sous-Lens - Top 20

A remarkable story about the Canadian trenches concerns the preparations for the attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. The Canadian divisions used an underground quarry and created additional corridors towards the front. These tunnels and trenches played a crucial role in the success of the attack, with the Canadians managing to retake the strategically important ridge in just three days.

A remarkable event occurred on April 9, 1917, when Canadian troops launched their famous assault on Vimy Ridge, a pivotal battle that resulted in the capture of strategically important heights. The cemetery commemorates the sacrifices of these and other soldiers who fought in the region.

The Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery is a military cemetery managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). This cemetery was established in March 1917 by the Canadian Corps and contains the graves of soldiers who died during World War I. Givenchy-en-Gohelle was captured by the 2nd Canadian Division on April 13, 1917, and remained in British hands for the rest of the war.

Within the 107 hectares of the Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada, near the grandiose memorial erected in honor of the 66,000 Canadian soldiers who died in the Great War, a more modest building is dedicated "to the memory (...) of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of the Moroccan Division who fell gloriously here on May 9, 10, and 11, 1915." Before the Canadians captured Vimy Ridge from the Germans in April 1917, other soldiers had already set foot there but were unable to hold their ground due to a lack of reinforcements and sufficient artillery support. These "forerunners" were the Moroccan Zouaves and riflemen, wearing red chechias and baggy trousers, accompanied in the Moroccan Division by Foreign Legion volunteers from 52 countries. To the men of the Moroccan Division who set out to assault Vimy Ridge On the morning of May 9, 1915, they broke through the German lines, crossed Folie Wood, and approached Vimy Ridge. To monitor their advance and adjust artillery fire, squares of white cloth were sewn to their backs, making them prime targets for the Germans on their flank. Furthermore, the artillery was running low on ammunition, and reinforcements were not forthcoming: the order to withdraw came with the evening. The Moroccan soldiers were forced to abandon the conquered ground at the cost of heavy losses. The riflemen of the Moroccan Division were among the approximately 820,000 men mobilized in the French colonies or protectorates during the First World War, including 636,000 sent to France as soldiers or laborers. Among the 449,000 engaged in the fighting, the majority came from Algeria (150,000) and the others from sub-Saharan Africa (135,000), Indochina (43,000), Tunisia (39,000), Morocco (34,000). 70,000 of them died on French soil.

The Vimy Memorial is the most prestigious Canadian monument in Europe. It is located on the very site of the 1917 fighting near Vimy in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Erected on the highest point of the hill, Hill 145, the objective of the operations that began on April 9, 1917, it overlooks the Douai Plain. In 1921, architect and sculptor Walter S. Allward (1875-1955) won the competition from the Canadian Battlefield Memorials Commission. The significance of the battles at the site and the favorable location at the top of the hill allowed Vimy to receive the most prestigious work.

I went there late one evening, a calm that does you good, a great panorama night and day

Such places are still very important today as memorials to the countless war dead. "Now, Lord, you let your servant depart in peace, as you have said..." says the so-called "Hymn of Simeon" (Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, Verse 29). However, the many people buried here did not depart in peace, but became victims of war and an inhuman tyranny. The most important and at the same time everlasting function of the military or honorary cemeteries or war graves is therefore to keep the memory of this suffering alive and - every generation anew (!) - to remind them of the need to maintain peace in the long term.

The Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery is a place of respect and remembrance, dedicated to the Canadian soldiers who fell during the First World War. Located on the heights, this peaceful site offers a serene view of the surrounding fields and Vimy Ridge. The rows of headstones, carefully aligned, recall the sacrifice of these men who came from far away to fight.