Bourlon Church from the Chateau. Advance East of Arras. October, 1918. Photo o.3428 Bourlon is a village approximately 6 kilometres west of Cambrai. It lies between the main Cambrai to Bapaume road (N30) and the Cambrai to Arras road (D939). From Arras the preferred route is to take the D939, direction Cambrai. On its South-East side, stretching nearly to Fontaine-Notre Dame, is Bourlon Wood, and the village and the wood were the scene of desperate fighting in the Battle of Cambrai 1917; the 40th Division, which with the Guards and the 62nd Division bore the brunt of this fighting, has placed a memorial altar in Bourlon Church. At the end of the Battle the British troops were withdrawn from Bourlon, and the wood and the village were ultimately retaken by the 3rd Canadian and 4th Canadian Divisions on 27 September 1918. Bourlon Wood Cemetery was made by the Canadian Corps Burial Officer in October 1918. There are now nearly 250, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over ten are unidentified. The cemetery covers an area of 874 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall on three sides. 274 metres South-West of the cemetery is a Battlefield Memorial erected by the Canadian Government to recall the forcing of the Canal du Nord by the Canadian Corps on 27 September 1918 and the subsequent advance to Mons and the Rhine.