In the battle, General Victor d'Urbal, commander of the French Tenth Army, sought to dislodge the Germans from the region by attacking their positions at Vimy Ridge and Notre Dame de Lorette. When the attack began on 9 May 1915, the French XXXIII Army Corps made significant territorial gains. The Moroccan Division, which was part of the XXXIII Army Corps, quickly moved through the German defences and advanced into German lines in two hours. The division managed to capture the height of the ridge, with small parties even reaching the far side of the ridge, before retreating due to a lack of reinforcements. Even after German counter-attacks, the division managed to hold a territorial gain of . The division did however suffer heavy casualties. Those killed in the battle and commemorated on the memorial include both of the division's brigade commanders, Colonels Gaston Cros and Louis Augustus Theodore Pein.