Redan Ridge Number 3 Cemetery

[Peter Woodger]

This is an unusual layout. Rows A and B have bodies laid head to head. There is a small gap between the back to back headstones. It is possible that a double width trench was dug but this pattern would be unique so that it is more likely that rows A and B were separate trenches but the bodies were laid in opposite directions.

Row C contains 1 named burial and then 13 unknowns commemorated on three headstones ( 1, 5 & 7)

There are, against the wall, 13 headstones to men whose graves were destroyed by shellfire. The inference is that the original graves were within the cemetery otherwise their names would be on the Thiepval Memorial. The original records would say where the burials were but we do not know whether the rows were longer and the shell bit off the ends, or whether there was a fourth row in the space between C and the wall. Is it a coincidence that there are 13 unknowns in row C or is this where the shell hit and destroyed the bodies? Were more than 13 bodies destroyed, the extras being unknowns since no special memorial is raised to an unknown whose body was destroyed in later fighting or could not be found on exhumation. My question is how many bodies were originally buried in Redan Ridge 3?

[birchp]

This is an unusual layout. Rows A and B have bodies laid head to head. There is a small gap between the back to back headstones. It is possible that a double width trench was dug but this pattern would be unique so that it is more likely that rows A and B were separate trenches but the bodies were laid in opposite directions.

Row C contains 1 named burial and then 13 unknowns commemorated on three headstones ( 1, 5 & 7)

There are, against the wall, 13 headstones to men whose graves were destroyed by shellfire. The inference is that the original graves were within the cemetery otherwise their names would be on the Thiepval Memorial. The original records would say where the burials were but we do not know whether the rows were longer and the shell bit off the ends, or whether there was a fourth row in the space between C and the wall. Is it a coincidence that there are 13 unknowns in row C or is this where the shell hit and destroyed the bodies? Were more than 13 bodies destroyed, the extras being unknowns since no special memorial is raised to an unknown whose body was destroyed in later fighting or could not be found on exhumation. My question is how many bodies were originally buried in Redan Ridge 3?

Total Burials: 67

http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1frenchexte...danridgeno3.htm

Paul

[auchonvillerssomme]

The question was more complicated, how many burials were originally in Redan Ridge no 3?

Mick