Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

  • entries
    273
  • comments
    33
  • views
    7,509

About this blog

I've visited over 300 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries, and dozens of Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (counterpart to the CWGC) cemeteries in the Western Front, and they all hold two things in common for me - they are uniquely beautiful, and they never cease to move me. It is both a profoundly disturbing and rewarding experience to be surrounded by so many souls whose lives were cut way too short, in all too often horrifying circumstances. If you never get the chance to visit these cemeteries in person, I hope your virtual-visit gives you an appreciation for the manner in which these men and women are cared for, in perpetuity by representatives of the CWGC and volunteers of the humanitarian organization Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.. This blog also contains videos of various ceremonies in Europe and Canada, with a particular emphasis on the Great War Centenary (2014-2018).  We Will Remember Them.

Entries in this blog

Bard Cottage Cemetery

For much of the Great War, the village of Boesinghe (now Boezinge) directly faced the German line across the Yser canal. Bard Cottage was a house a little set back from the line, close to a bridge called Bard's Causeway, and the cemetery was made nearby in a sheltered position under a high bank. Burials were made between June 1915 and October 1918 and they reflect the presence of the 49th (West Riding), the 38th (Welsh) and other infantry divisions in the northern sectors of the Ypres Salient, a

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Tilloy British Cemetery, Tilloy-Les-Mofflaines

Tilloy British Cemetery, Tilloy-Les-Mofflaines. Tilloy-Les-Mofflaines was taken by Commonwealth troops on 9 April 1917, but it was partly in German hands again from March to August 1918. The cemetery was begun in April 1917 by fighting units and burial officers, and Rows A to H in Plot I largely represent burials from the battlefield. The remaining graves in Plot I, and others in the first three rows of Plot II, represent later fighting in 1917 and the first three months of 1918, and the clearin

ejwalshe

ejwalshe in Cemetery

Croisilles British Cemetery

Croisilles Wood, featured prominently in this video, is a destination in 1917 (2019 film) by Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes. The protagonist, Corporal Schofield, reaches Croisilles Wood as the suicidal raid to which he has been sent to cancel, is already underway. The 7th Division attacked Croisilles in March 1917 and took it on 2 April. It was lost on 21 March 1918 and recaptured by the 56th (London) Division on the following 28 August, after heavy fighting. Plots I and II of the cemetery, were ma

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Bailleul Communal Cemetery and Extension Nord

0:45 Private Ernest Samuel Weeks 1:05 Oberleutenant Ernst Halbrock 1:40 Serjeant J. Grindlay 5:25 Captain A.L. Mercer 7:50 Soldat Max Maucke 8:30 Gunner P. Cranmer Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Bertrancourt Military Cemetery

Bertrancourt Military Cemetery. Bertrancourt is a village in the Department of the Somme. The cemetery was used by field ambulances in 1916 and 1917 and again by corps and divisional burial parties in the critical months of June, July and August 1918, when German advances brought the front line to within 8 kilometres of Bertrancourt. There are 419 burials of soldiers of the Great War who fell in the fighting in the Somme sector. Of these, 388 were British, 2 Canadian, 26 New Zealand, and 3 Germa

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Oostaverne Wood Cemetery

Made this one especially for the very special great-niece (and her son) of Private Arthur Birkett Croman of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Virton-Bellevue

Von den neun Friedhöfen, die ursprünglich in diesem Gebiet existierten, ist nur noch dieser erhalten. Viele Gefallene wurden 1957 vom Volksbund umgebettet. Hier ruhen 1.288 gefallene Deutsche und 288 gefallene Franzosen sowie 28 Österreicher, 29 Italiener und 17 Russen des Ersten Weltkrieges.

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Divisional Cemetery

he cemetery was first used by Commonwealth units at the end of April 1915 and continued in use until May 1916. Row C contains the collective grave of 23 men of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment who were killed in the German gas attack at Hill 60 on 5 May 1915. The cemetery was used again from July 1917, mostly by artillery units, for burials arising from the 1917 Flanders offensive. There are now 283 Great War burials within the cemetery. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Forceville Communal Cemetery and Extension

Forceville Communal Cemetery and Extension.  Located west of the French village of Forceville in the Somme region, the cemetery extension was one of the first three Commission sites to be built after the Great War.  There are more than 300 burials of the Great War in this site, three of them in the communal cemetery adjoining the cemetery.  The cemetery extension was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield who was the Principal Architect for France for the Commission.  Sir Frederic Kenyon, Director o

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Tyne Cot Cemetery, Part I

Tyne Cot Cemetery, Part I.  Near the town of Ieper in Belgium is Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world. It is now the resting place of more than 11,900 servicemen of the British Empire and a lone identified soldier of the German Army from the Great War. This area on the Western Front was the scene of the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele; it was one of the major battles of the Great War.

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Brussels Town Cemetery

Brussels Town Cemetery.  Brussels was in German hands from 20 August 1914 to the date of the Armistice. Plot X of the cemetery contains the graves of 54 Commonwealth casualties, 50 of which were prisoners of war whose bodies were brought back from Germany by the Canadian Corps in April 1919. The British Expeditionary Force was involved in the later stages of the defence of Belgium following the German invasion in May 1940, and suffered many casualties in covering the withdrawal to Dunkirk. Commo

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Buffs Road Cemetery

Buffs Road was the name given to a small lane, which ran between Boundary Road and Admiral's Road, just to the north of the hamlet of Wieltje.  The cemetery was made and used by fighting units (in particular by the 12th, 13th and 14th Royal Sussex and the Royal Artillery) between July 1917 and March 1918, and after the Armistice graves were brought into it (Row EE and part of Row from the battlefields and one British officer, who fell in 1915, was brought in from Brielen Churchyard.  There are

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

La Laiterie Military Cemetery

The cemetery, named from a dairy farm, was begun in November 1914 and used until October 1918 by units holding this sector of the front. The different plots were, to a great extent, treated as regimental burial grounds; the majority of the graves in Plots II, III and X, for instance, were those of the 26th, 25th and 24th Canadian Infantry Battalions, respectively, and all but one of the graves in Plot VIII are those of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers. On 25 April 1918, the cemetery fell into Ge

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Bapaume Post MIlitary Cemetery Video

1:30 Lieutenant James William Williams 1:35 Major F. E. Hall 1:40 Major John Simon Lewis 2:10 Acting Bombardier Arthur Clifford Major 6:35 Gunner H. Walsh MM 7:20 Private S.F. Hinchliffe 8:20 Lieutenant Allen Oliver MC   

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Consenvoye

1:10 Albert Bilke, Josef Lempert 2:20 Georg Segal, Wilhelm Bauer 4:35 Theodor Humpert, Gustav Fischer 5:30 Max Schmaler, Karl Koizlik Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Etaples Military Cemetery Plot XXVIII

During the Great War, the area around the small fishing port of Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. At its peak, 100,000 troops were housed there with Commonwealth army training and reinforcement camps and an extensive complex of hospitals. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hos

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Warlencourt British Cemetery

Warlencourt, the Butte de Warlencourt and Eaucourt-L'Abbaye were the scene of very fierce fighting in 1916. Eaucourt was taken by the 47th (London) Division early in October. The Butte (a Roman mound of excavated chalk, about 17 metres high, once covered with pines) was attacked by that and other divisions, but it was not relinquished by the Germans until the following 26 February, when they withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. The 51st (Highland) Division fought a delaying action here on 25 March 1

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Chester Farm Cemetery

Chester Farm was the name given to a farm about 1 Km South of Blauwepoort Farm, on the road from Zillebeke to Voormezeele. The cemetery was begun in March 1915 and was used by front line troops until November 1917. Plot I contains the graves of 92 officers and men of the 2nd Manchesters, who died in April-July 1915 and there are 72 London Regiment burials elsewhere in the Cemetery. There are 420 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Seven of the burials are unidentifie

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

Knightsbridge Cemetery

The cemetery, which is named from a communication trench, was begun at the outset of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It was used by units fighting on that front until the German withdrawal in February 1917 and was used again by fighting units from the end of March to July 1918, when the German advance brought the front line back to the Ancre. After the Armistice, some burials in Rows G, H and J were added when graves were brought in from isolated positions on the battlefields of 1916 and 1918 r

ejwalshe

ejwalshe

×
×
  • Create New...