Western Front demarcation stones

[1] The idea came from sculptor Paul Moreau-Vauthier who had served as a machine gunner in the French Army during the war and had been severely wounded at the Battle of Verdun.

The town was actually occupied by the Germans during the 1918 Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux but because the occupation was brief, a mere 24 hours, it was not considered when the stone was sited.

[4] Similarly, a stone in the Somme region near Hébuterne is positioned some 1.2 kilometres (3⁄4 mi) east of the actual limit of the German advance.

[2] The front of the stone shows the name of the locality, the sides depict the typical infantryman's equipment of gas mask and water bottle and a hand grenade, with emerging palm branch, is shown at each corner.

[1] In February 2019, a new monument was erected at Morbecque, in the Vauthier-style but in a white-coloured stone, to mark the location of the headquarters of the British Third Army.