Canadian Abbey d’Ardenne Massacre Memorial — Attraction in Caen

Difficult to find but worthwhile. Went in late October and weather cold. The lane up which the location lies was in regular use by tractors and agricultural vehicles getting the harvest in. Peaceful location slightly marred by encroachment by a rather ugly housing estate.

The Abbey itself did not seem to be open (at any rate, coming here as part of a group, we did not go in) but we saw the external memorials and visited the garden of remembrance to side of the building.

The memorials don't agree on the number of Canadian POWs shot here by the "Hitler Jugend" SS regiment, but the total was 27 in the course of a few days. A little piece of the brutality of the Eastern Front brought to the West by fanatical, brain washed Nazis just out of childhood. Their commander was court martial led, found guilty, sentenced to death but the sentence was not inflicted, and he was released in 1954.

A note of warning: if you are driving a minibus/can the road gets narrow and the parking provision is off road. However, when we went there, there was a height limit on the entrance so we had to turn vehicles around, which was a dicey prospect because of large boulders strategically placed by road, presumably to stop...

We visited the Abbey late June of 2024. It was a surreal experience. The Abbey is alive with flowers, raspberries and trees. We wandered the grounds and stopped to read all the plaques to our lost soldiers. Very well presented. We looked through the windows of the abbey itself and saw research students busy working.

A little disappointed that we could not go inside the Abbey itself but nevertheless it was an experience we will not forgot. On our way out we stopped at their cafe...

Having returned to this memorial I have to say I am disappointed. The recent works are a great disappointment. To say the quality of the work is third rate is a huge understatement, it's appalling. It is disrespectful to the men who died and this needs to be addressed immediately as a simple matter of respect to those who died, the regiments they belong to and...