Dury Memorial
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| Dury Memorial | |
|---|---|
| Canada | |
 Canadian Dury Memorial | |
| For the Canadian Corps' actions in the First World War during the Second Battle of Arras including the Battle of the Scarpe and the breakthrough of the Drocourt–Quéant Line defences of the Hindenburg Line. | |
| Location | 50°14′3″N 2°59′49″E / 50.23417°N 2.99694°E near Dury, Pas-de-Calais, France |
The inscription reads: "The Canadian Corps 100,000 strong, attacked at Arras on August 26th 1918, stormed successive German lines and here on Sept. 2nd broke and turned the main German position on the Western Front and reached the Canal du Nord" | |
The Dury Memorial is a World War I Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the Second Battle of Arras, particularly their breakthrough at the Drocourt–Quéant Line switch of the Hindenburg Line just south of the town of Dury, Pas-de-Calais, France.
The events commemorated with the Dury Canadian Memorial took place in late August and early September 1918 during a period known as the Hundred Days Offensive or Canada's Hundred Days.[1]
Following close on the heels of their breakthrough success at the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, Allied Command sought to press the advantage created with the Amiens Offensive and penetrate a new axis of attack. The Canadians were withdrawn and redeployed with the British 1st Army 60 kilometres to the north on the eastern fringes of the city of Arras to again take on the role of the spearhead of the attack, as they had at Amiens. The offensive, which became known to the Canadians as the Battle of the Scarpe (1918) or the Second Battle of Arras, was part of the larger Allied Second Battle of the Somme. On 26 August, the attack was launched with the Canadians in the centre of the attack front, moving eastward along the axis of the Arras-Cambrai Road. The corps' 2nd and 3rd Divisions, along with a British division, advanced rapidly from the eastern outskirts of Arras through a series of well-networked trenches and redoubts, pushing 14 kilometres in 4 days, capturing numerous villages as well as 3,300 prisoners and a large number of artillery pieces.[2] During this phase of the fighting, two Canadians, Charles Smith Rutherford and William Clark-Kennedy would earn the Victoria Cross for their actions.
However, the progress was stunted by corps' arrival at the Drocourt–Quéant Line. Otherwise known as the 'DQ Line', this bulwark was part of the Hindenburg Line fortifications which in late 1918, constituted the German Army's last significant organized defensive network in northern France. Built ascending up the forward slope of a hill called Mont Dury and composed of mutually-supporting machine gun and artillery emplacements with bunkers and trenches built of concrete as well as belts of barbed wire up to 100 metres thick, it was arguably the best-engineered series of defences the Canadians had faced at any point in the war. Following a two-day rest, regrouping, and planning period, the Canadian/British assault on the DQ line began on 2 September.
The Battle of Drocourt-Quéant Line began with a concentrated artillery barrage, aircraft strafing the enemy and tanks leading the way, dragging hooks to pull back the barbed wire, clearing paths for the infantry of the 1st and 4th Divisions to storm forward. By the end of the day on the 2nd, the foremost echelons of attackers had fully advanced through the defences and overnight the German defenders largely abandoned their remaining positions. Over the following three days the Canadians advanced almost unharried 6 kilometres to the Canal du Nord, which the enemy had withdrawn behind. At the DQ Line the Canadians inflicted heavy casualties on the defenders and another 6,000 unwounded prisoners were captured at this time.[2] Particularly noteworthy for such a brief battle was that seven Canadians earned a Victoria Cross on 2 September alone.
The brief campaign, lasting from 26 August to 4 September, took a bitter toll on the Canadians as well, with the corps suffering 11,000 casualties in the fighting.
