Upper Image: Demarcation Stone at Dodengang, Diksmuide Belgium, December 2018.
Lower Image: Demarcation Stone in the destroyed village of Bezonvaux, near Verdun France, December 2018.
Demarcation Stones of the Western Front
Two years after the Armistice, French sculptor Paul Moreau-Vauthier proposed a series of small monuments to commemorate the start of the Allies offensive against the German Army in 1918. Moreau-Vauthier, a veteran of the Battle of Verdun, created a model of the monument with the idea that one would be placed every kilometer along the 650km line of the Western Front, from Nieuwpoort Belgium to Pfetterhouse on the French-Swiss border.
French Field Marshal Philippe Petain was invited to help select the locations for the monuments and a final list was created: 28 in Belgium and 212 in France. Due to waning enthusiasm and lack of funds, the project never reached its goal of 240 markers. However, between 1921 and 1927, a total of 118 Demarcation Stones were placed, 22 in Belgium and 96 in France.
Each monument is 1-meter-high, topped with a laurel wreath and either a Belgian, British or French helmet, depending upon which Allied army had been holding that sector of the line in 1918. Carved on either side of the monument is a water bottle and gas mask case, exploding grenades on the four corners. An inscription on the monument states “Ici fut repoussé l'envahisseur” (From here the invader was pushed back).
Some of these monuments have deteriorated over the years. The Second World War saw the destruction of 24 of the markers. The majority of these monuments are still in place however, and a database of their locations can be found online here.
January 17, 2019