The French National Memorial to the Second Battle of the Marne, "Les Fantomes", "The Ghosts", Butte de Chalmont, France.
"Dedicated to the victory at the Second Battle of the Marne we find at the Butte de Chalmont one of the most striking monuments on the Western Front. The Second Battle of the Marne had commenced on the 15th July 1918 and after three weeks of heavy fighting involving French, American, British and Italian divisions the Germans were defeated and the initiative passed into the hands of the Allies. This National Memorial at Chalmont which celebrates this victory is the work of the sculptor Paul Landowski and was inaugurated on the 21st July 1935 by President Lebrun. The memorial at the Butte de Chalmont should be looked at as having three parts. Firstly, and on the lower slope of the hill, is the sculpture of a woman dressed in a simple cloak and carrying a shield on her left arm. She represents France and is walking forward slowly and looking to the east. Secondly and behind her, are four long steps, each representing the four years of the 1914-1918 war. These take one some 150 yards up the slopes of the hill (butte) to the third part of the composition , a group of eight figures called the "les fantômes", seven figures representing a young recruit, an engineer, a machine-gunner, a grenadier, a colonial soldier, an infantryman and a pilot surround an eighth figure which represents death leaving his shroud. The figures have their eyes closed; they are seeking their missing comrades. The Butte at Chalmont is part of the plateau from which the Allies launched their attack."
Size: 3624px × 2415px
Location: D229, Oulchy-le-Château, Butte de Chalmont, Picardy, France
Photo credit: © Maurice Savage / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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