Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres

[Guest Deep Throat]

This is a big cemetery, near Amiens, holding some 1900 casualties mainly from the 1918 fighting in this area. It doesn`t receive that many visitors, but recent arrivals will have noticed that the all the grass is a particularly bright shade of yellow, rather than the lush green considered both normal and desirable in your average CWGC operation.

There is a good reason for this change - the grass is dead, poisoned by a massive overdose of the wrong sort of herbicide. Observant visitors will notice the odd patch of green here and there, verdant islands in a sea of yellow. These are the weeds the intended to be killed in the original operation, but which have survived intact. The whole cemetery will have to be rotavated in the autumn and relaid with new turf. This will be expensive - very expensive.

An internal inquiry into this incident has laid the blame at the door of inadequate supervision and/or poorly trained staff. Disciplinary action is not expected

[Frank_East]

I remember this cemetery for its large Aussie internments.The parking for this isolated cemetery was inadequate, being only available on the grass verge.A dangerous place to get off and on the very busy Amiens- Peronne road.

No doubt the building of the motorway has unloaded this RN.