A.I.F. Burial Ground, Flers

[Tony Lund]

Is the A.I.F. Burial Ground, at Flers, short for the Australia Imperial Force Burial Ground? Or are these initials short for something else? The Holmfirth man buried there certainly had nothing to do with Australia.

Just curious,

Thanks,

Tony.

[Alan_J]

Tony,

I beleieve the initials are for the Australian forces - the cemetery was started by the Australians in 1916, although obviously there are other graves (including French) there too. Many were 'concentration' burials after the Armistice.

Alan

[stevem49]

The Australian Imperial Forces, medical units established aid stations in the nearby caves Nov 1916. After the armistice it was enlarged and contains - 2,800 UK, app 400 Aussie 80 NZ, 70 Canadians 25 SA, 160 French and 3 German. Many are 'unknown'.

stevem

[Andrew P]

Here's a shot of some of the French graves at AIF Burial Ground & one from the front of the cemetery

[Tony Lund]

Thanks everyone. I was thinking it would most likely be the Australian Imperial Forces but I wanted to be sure. Good photos, very flat land there by the looks of it.

Thanks again.

Tony.