Walls and memorials around the ancient fortified ville of Le Quesnoy, pronounced Le KEN-wa located in northern France. Some general views of the defensive wall surrounding the town.
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During the Great War, Le Quesnoy was occupied by the German 22nd Division and was the scene of a quick and daring capture by a small group of New Zealand soldiers on 4 November 1918. The following is recycled from my post on the subject in 2019.
Owing to the two rows of fortifications ringing the town, a frontal assault was undesirable and artillery couldn't be used as there were civilians within the walls, so the Kiwis opted to surround the town and swamp its German defenders with mortar fire against the ramparts and advance under cover of smoke screens. On 3 November the Kiwi brigades began their advance, completely surrounding it by 11am, then pondered the assault on its ramparts. This was to be carried out by battalions of the Rifle Brigade commencing at 5:30am on the morning of the 4th. Carrying out multi-pronged advances covered by mortars, the Kiwis probed the defences, heavily defended by machine gun fire. 2 Lt Leslie Averill, the 4th Rifle Batallion's intelligence officer had been searching for a weak point in the defences and from the west, he came across a branch of the ramparts seemingly undefended, with its approach covered by a defensive wall called a demilune, seen here, looking to the direction from whence he instructed an approach to be made.
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At around 1600, led by 2 Lt Averill, No.14 Platoon of the 4th Rifles, 6 men, ran across the wall at the right and reached this port in the defences. They were carrying a rickety wooden ladder some 30 feet in length...
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...Which the divisional engineers had pilfered from this farm yard a few kilometres from the town, the walled Ferme du Fort Martin...
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Then, crossing the top of the defenses, the soldiers leaned the ladder against this wall, to the right of the portal and began ascending it, a man at a time, owing to its flimsiness. Once the rest of the platoon had reached the inside of the ramparts, the rest of the battalion followed. On their arrival, it all ended rather suddenly - the German commanding officer, realising the precariousness of his position surrendered. 1243 prisoners were taken.
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This is the back cover of John H. Gray's excellent book From The Uttermost Ends Of The Earth; The New Zealand Division On The Western Front 1916 to 1918 - A History And Guide To Its Battlefields (Wilson Scott Publishing, 2010) with a depiction of the scaling of the wall, with 2 Lt Averill having reached the top, by official artist of the NZ Expeditionary Force, George Edmund Butler.
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The plaque mounted to the right of the point at which the men scaled the wall; some 122 Kiwis lost their lives with 500 casualties suffered during the assault on Le Quesnoy. Every year, on the weekend that falls closest to Anzac Day (25th of April) and Remembrance Day, the New Zealand delegate in France and Kiwi travellers make a beeline for this spot to attend a remembrance service.
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This is the gate that the New Zealand Div entered the town following its capture.
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All around the town are memorials to the role of the New Zealanders in liberating the place.
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For those of you puzzled, the All Blacks are New Zealand's rugby union team.
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Le Quesnoy's war memorial in the town centre.
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