The Bourlon Wood Memorial, near Bourlon, France, is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps during the final months of the First World War; a period also known as Canada's Hundred Days, part of the Hundred Days Offensive. Historical background The memorial at the Bourlon Wood commemorates the final series of battles the Canadian Corps fought in the latter phases of the Hundred Days Offensive (also known as Canada's Hundred Days) during the final months of the Great War. Particularly celebrated at Bourlon Wood are the Canadian victories the Battle of the Canal du Nord and the ensuing fight for the villages of Bourlon and Marquion and their flushing the German forces and Bourlon Wood, and the subsequent 'Pursuit to Mons' during which the Canadians participated in the liberation of the French cities of Cambrai, Denain (during the Battle of the Selle), Valenciennes and finally Mons in Belgium on 11 November 1918. Monument design Site selection At the end of the war, The Imperial War Graves Commission granted Canada eight sites - five in France and three in Belgium - on which to erect memorials. Each site represented a significant Canadian engagement in the war and for this reason it was originally decided that each battlefield would be treated equally and graced with identical monuments. The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was formed in November 1920 and decided a competition would be held to select the design of the memorial that would be used at the eight European sites. In October 1922, the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward was selected as the winner of the competition, and the submission of Frederick Chapman Clemesha placed second. The commission decided Allward's monumental design would be used at Vimy Ridge in France as it was the most dramatic location. Despite a consideration that Alward's monument at Vimy could stand alone as the sole monument to the Canadian efforts in Europe Clemesha's 'Brooding Soldier' design was selected for the remaining seven sites but was later, for a number of reasons, erected only at St. Julien in Belgium. The remaining six memorials, to be built on sites at Passchendaele and Hill 62 in Belgium and at Le Quesnel, Dury, Courcelette and Bourlon Wood in France would each received a modest memorial designed under the supervision of architect and advisor to the Battlefield Memorials Commission, Percy Erskine Nobbs.