Neuville-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais)
Memorial for the Polish Volunteers who fell in the area on 9 May 1915, during the Second Battle of Artois.
in 1917 a Polish army was created on French soil, a force that would comprise over 30,000 men by the time of the Armistice.
In the earlier years of the war, Polish volunteers already served with the French Foreign Legion. They were a mix of aristocrats, labourers and students, all hoping for the revival of their motherland, divided up between the Central Powers and Russia.
The Polish volunteers trained at Bayonne and were named “Bajonczycy”, the Bayonnais. They distinguished themselves in the Second Battle of Artois in May 1915, but suffering severe losses were almost completely wiped out as a fighting force.
The monument for the Bayonnais at Neuville-Saint-Vaast was erected in 1929, but destroyed by the Germans in the Second World War.
The current monument was renovated in 1995.