Serre Road 2 Cemetery

[Peter Woodger]

Hi

The keen eyed may have spotted that the CWGC has changed its introduction to Serre Road 2. Since the original register was produced, in 1936, the second attack in this area was said to take place on 11th November 1916. This has been amended for all three Serre Road Cemeteries to read 13th November 1916. Also since the original register it was stated that the original burials in Plot I and II numbered 489. That figure has been amended to 475 with the recognition that Plot II row E was made in 1922.

Congratulations to CWGC.

Peter

[rmslt56]

Hi

The keen eyed may have spotted that the CWGC has changed its introduction to Serre Road 2. Since the original register was produced, in 1936, the second attack in this area was said to take place on 11th November 1916. This has been amended for all three Serre Road Cemeteries to read 13th November 1916. Also since the original register it was stated that the original burials in Plot I and II numbered 489. That figure has been amended to 475 with the recognition that Plot II row E was made in 1922.

Congratulations to CWGC.

Peter

Hello Peter,

Thank you for that,very interesting.

Perhaps the CWGC will explain the mystery as to just how many Germans sre buried in Serre Road. 2 Headstones for seven can be located but the register says that 13 Germans are buried in the cemetery

Regards Doug

[Peter Woodger]

Doug

As the extract shows the 1936 register for Serre Road 2 agrees with you, 7 Germans of whom 6 are unknown.

Peter

[keithmroberts]

Would ot be too simplistic to suggest a clerical error based on the manipulation of the numbers above. 7+6-2=11

Keith

[Peter Woodger]

Keith

The register in the box at the cemetery says 13 Germans. I think you have hit the nail on the head but a little too hard. 7+6=13, the 2 is not required

Peter

[keithmroberts]

Peter,

I'm glad someone is fully conscious. I'm not sure where my fixation on 11 came from.

Keith

[laughton]

As there was already existing topic cor this cemetery, I have extracted the CWGC information and placed it here, to which I have added the trench map coordinates off the DAL for the cemeteries that provided concentrations. I will also go back through the COG-BR documents to check for any that are missing and add any large areas for concentrations that are not mentioned. I will need to edit this post a few times to collect and insert the information. Generally the CWGC does not list this many cemeteries when they had such small numbers of concentrations.

 

The ZIP files for the documents from the CEFSG Shared MediaFire folder are here:

• Main Folder
  • GRRF ZIP Files
  • COG-BR ZIP Files (note that there is an issue with both the "X" and the "A" on the typewriter, which is confusing)
  • SP-EXH ZIP Files
  • Found 7 June 2018 in Nyon New B.C. files (mixed Sp-EXH and COG-BR Files)

 

Canadian Wigney Code: F1890

 

The CWGC documents, such as building structures and site plans can be found here: CWGC Archives List   Note: It took me a few tries to figure out how to get the limk for the CWGC Archives List. If you want to do that, "right click" on the search results page and select "view page source". Then look for the text, in this case at line 196, which has this information:    href="/Overview.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&action=a1e40df5".   Copy that information, or "right click" to open the link in a "newtab".   It will appear as: http://archive.cwgc.org/Overview.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&action=a1e40df5.    It is the last 8 digits that are important, the main format of the link text is the same for each cemetery. You can save that as a bookmark and insert the code, the same as you do for GRRF or COG-BR documents.

Example page of first archive link:

 

From the CWGC text (edited - my comments in italics and DAL or COG-BR TMC is in BOLD):

Quote

In June 1916, the road out of Mailly-Maillet to Serre and Puisieux entered No Man's Land about 1,300 metres south-west of Serre. On 1 July 1916, the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked north and south of this road and although parties of the 31st Division reached Serre, the attack failed. The 3rd and 31st Divisions attacked once more on the 13 November, but again without success.

 

Early in 1917, the Germans fell back to the Hindenburg Line and on 25 February, Serre was occupied by the 22nd Manchesters. The village changed hands once more in March 1918 and remained under German occupation, until they withdrew in August.

 

In the spring of 1917, the battlefields of the Somme and Ancre were cleared by V Corps and a number of new cemeteries were made, three of which are now named from the Serre Road. Serre Road Cemetery No.2 was begun in May 1917 and by the end of the war it contained approximately 475 graves (Plots I and II, except for Row E, Plot II which was added in 1922 and Row AA, Plot I which was added in 1927), but it was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the addition of further graves from the surrounding area, including graves from the following smaller cemeteries:-

• BAIZIEUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one United Kingdom grave March 1918.
• BOISMONT CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of October 1914.
• BUCQUOY COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Pas-de-Calais) 57d.L.4.a.2.8: 25 United Kingdom graves of August 1918.
• ERCHEU CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of March 1918.
  • COG-BR 2618644 for Gunner Nice #119180 at 62d.O.27.b.7.7
• FRETTECUISSE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave September 1916.
• HERVILLY CHURCHYARD (Somme): one R.F.C. grave of September 1916.
  • on COG-BR 2050350 at 62c.K.24.c.1.8 from 18 September 1916 (also has SP-EXH) = 2nd Lt. Oswald Nixon
• HOLNON COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Aisne) 62b.S.2.d.2.3: five United Kingdom graves April 1917.
• LABOISSIERE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1917.
• LE SARS GERMAN CEMETERY (Pas-de-Calais): one United Kingdom grave.
• MADAME MILITARY CEMETERY, CLERY-SUR-SOMME (Somme) 62c.C.25.b.5.8: three United Kingdom graves of February 1917.
• MEAULTE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1916.
  • not DAL listed but two others are for "Meaulte" at 62d.E.23.a.75.50 and 62d.E.22.d.3.8, so that may be the general area
  • listed on COG-BR 2618494 as 62d.E.17.b.1.4 for Captain H. Singlehurst of the 12th N. Fus.
• POZIERES COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one Canadian grave of September 1916.
  • from TMC for Pozieres we know this to be at 57d.R.34.C.52.05
• REMIENCOURT COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1918.
• SOMME AMERICAN CEMETERY, BONY (Aisne): two United Kingdom graves of July and October 1918, and one Australian of September 1918.
  • Pt. Craven #24403 (COG-BR 2618596) was thought to be an American, found in Block A Row 11 Grave 8, originally from the Old Hickory No. 1 Military Cemetery Cambrai at S.W. East 174.1.N.361.4
• VOYENNES CHURCHYARD (Somme): seven United Kingdom graves of March 1918.
• YTRES CHURCHYARD (Pas-de-Calais) 57c.P.20.d.3.0: 14 United Kingdom and four New Zealand graves of September 1918, mainly from the 15th Field Ambulance.

There are now 7,127 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery, mostly dating from 1916. Of these, 4,944 are unidentified. The cemetery, which was not completed until 1934, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

 

Other locations noted on the COG-BR documents were:

• a number of burials from "High Wood" at 57c.S.4.c.6.2, such as on COG-BR 2618607 - also a large number of SP-EXH from here in the set found mixed in with the Nyon British Cemetery
• a single UBS grave at the Doignt Communal Cemetery 62c.I.30.c.8.0, found by workmen digging a civilian vault (COG-BR 2618615)
• Bazentin Wood 57c.S.8.a.0.3, and surrounding area
• Hebuterne Communal Cemetery - a number of exhumations from 12 April 1928 now buried in Plot 19 Row B Graves 1-14 (starting at SP-EXH 2618459 and ending at SP-EXH 2618492)
• Frette Cuisse Churchyard, Dieppe.16. 1.J.80.08 - Sapper Pettie #56975

Edited 26 June , 2019 by laughton
updating links in stages - finished updates!