Memorial Plateau de l’Espinette Leernes

Memorial to the French soldiers who died in the battle of Leernes on 22 August 1914.

Text on the Information panel :
"The two armies engaged on this plateau at around 2 p.m. on 22 August 1914. Belgian civilians were requisitioned on 24 August to bury the bodies of 72French and 12 German soldiers in a mass grave. The soldiers’ remains were transferred to the military cemetery of Gozée, and then Aiseau-Presles, later on.
However, monuments were built in Leernes and throughout Wallonia in the aftermath of the war to attest to the will not to let the memory of the war fade.
A subscription was launched on 20 March 1920, under Doctor Emile HAUTAINS’s aegis, to erect a memorial to the French soldiers who died in the Leernes countryside. This memorial was unveiled on 22 August 1921."

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge