Just read a blurb about France granting Canadians a place at Vimy Ridge, forever. That was in 1922. Did advancing German armies in WWII ever purposely destroy monuments or memorials to allied soldiers? Did the allies ever do anything similar? I know stuff happens, in war, but I mean purposeful destruction.
I answered a question like this a while back, and it looks like that thread has already been linked in this one. (DuxBelisarius's answer is also more specific and applicable anyway.) But I'm going to repost a slightly edited version of my answer here in case anybody's interested in more on this topic:
I do not know of evidence that points to widespread destruction of memorials. War memorials were, and are, often shared sites of mourning between nations -- even nations that were opposed in wartime. In the case of the Second World War, for example, the community of Coventry Cathedral's Cross of Nails was in contact with German religious figures even before the war ended, and the cross is visible in churches on both sides of the war, around the world. I am not well informed on the subject of memorial preservation and destruction specifically in wartime, but it would not surprise me to learn that memorials were avoided and protected by both sides. As has already been mentioned, I know that Germany took interest in the preservation of a Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge. I'm not saying that was standard procedure, but I do know that so many Great War memorials were left untouched following the Second World War that it was standard procedure to save money on a new memorial by adding the names of fallen WWII soldiers to an existing WWI site.
My answer tagged below mentions actions taken against the Australian Memorial at St. Quentin, and the statue of Ferdinand Foch at Bouchavesnes. In addition to these actions, the Germans destroyed the large memorial to the American Expeditionary Force at Brest, in Brittany, France. There's more information [here] (https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/naval-monument-brest#.VspL_Y-cE2w)
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