Crest Farm Canadian Memorial Passendale

In 1914 there were a couple of outbuildings here which the British called Crest Farm. The name refers in the first place to the hill where the buildings stood. When you look from this spot on the edge of Passendale was a strategic important site.

On 30 October 1917 the Canadian 72nd Battalion captured Crest Farm. Even though this spot was really close to the village center, a second attack was needed to capture Passendale. On 6 November the Second Canadian Division launched an attack here, in which the 27th Battalion took the village center with the church, which was a mere heap of debris. Among the ruins the Germans were hiding in the numerous reinforced cellars of the houses. They had to be taken one by one.

In 1920 the Canadian Battlefield Monument Commission decided to erect eight official Canadian memorial sites on the Western Front. They were all meant to be identical, apart from the national monument in Vimy, which got a unique design.

In 1923 the ‘Brooding Soldier’ was erected at Sint-Juliaan. Because of the specific appearance of this impressive monument it was decides to put a cube-shaped monolith at the six other sits, among which Crest Farm. These were blocks of white granite from Stanstead, Québec. This one weighs over 13 tons and I a tribute to the Canadians that fought and died here in 1917. Moreover, when Passendale was rebuilt, it was decides to lay a straight road between the monument and the church. It symbolizes the last meters that the Canadians had to take.

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Source

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