#courcelette

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

The commune and the village of Courcelette were the scene of very heavy fighting in September 1916. On the 15th September 1916, the village was included in the extreme left of the Allied attack and was taken by the 2nd Canadian Division supported by tanks, with the 4th and 6th Brigades storming the outer trenches and the sugar factory, and the 5th Brigade seizing the village. It was destroyed by German artillery after its capture and remained very close to the front line until the German retreat in the following spring. The cemetery was begun in November 1916 (as Mouquet Road or Sunken Road Cemetery), and used until March 1917. The original 74 burials are now parts of Plot I, Rows A to F. On 25 March 1918, Courcelette passed into German hands, but was retaken on 24th August 1918.

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

The cemetery was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when almost 2,000 graves were brought in, mostly those of men who died around Courcelette and Pozieres in 1916. There are now 1,970 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,180 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to nine casualties five believed to be buried among them.

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Courcelette British Cemetery

Number of Burials by Unit

Canadian burials

398

  Australian burials

215

Royal Field Artillery

32

  Royal Fusiliers

19

King’s Royal Rifle Corps

14

  Dorsetshire Regiment

12

Northumberland Fusiliers

12

  South Staffordshire Regiment

9

Cheshire Regiment

8

  Royal Berkshire Regiment

7

Lancashire Fusiliers

5

  Royal Engineers

5

King’s Liverpool Regiment

4

  Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

4

Manchester Regiment

4

  Norfolk Regiment

4

Northamptonshire Regiment

4

  Machine Gun Corps

3

Middlesex Regiment

3

  Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

3

East Surrey Regiment

2

  East Yorkshire Regiment

2

Essex Regiment

2

  Gordon Highlanders

2

Royal Scots – Lothian Regiment

2

  Royal Sussex Regiment

2

Royal West Kent Regiment

2

  Suffolk Regiment

2

Bedfordshire Regiment

1

  Black Watch

1

Border Regiment

1

  Queen’s – Royal West Surrey Regiment

1

Royal Army Medical Corps

1

  Royal Irish Fusiliers

1

Royal Irish Rifles

1

    Identified burials

788

      Unidentified burials

1177

      Total burials

1965

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

ADANAC Military Cemetery

The villages of Miraumont and Pys were occupied on 24-25 February 1917 following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. They were retaken by the Germans on 25 March 1918, but recovered the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division on the following 24 August. Adanac Military Cemetery (the name was formed by reversing the name “Canada”) was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries surrounding Miraumont, and particularly from the Canadian battlefields round Courcelette. One grave (Plot IV, Row D, Grave 30) was left in its original position.

ADANAC: Lt R.H.P. Arnholz

ADANAC: Lt R.H.P. Arnholz

ADANAC: Lt A.R.C. Eaton

ADANAC: Lt A.R.C. Eaton

ADANAC: Sgt S. Forsyth VC NZEF

ADANAC: Piper James Richardson VC

ADANAC: Pte J. McArthur

There are now 3,186 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War in this cemetery. 1,708 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 13 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Number of burials by Unit

Northumberland Fusiliers

64

  New Zealand units

64

Royal Warwickshire Regiment

51

  16th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Manitoba Regiment)

48

58th Bn. Canadian Inf. (2nd Central Ontario Regiment)

45

  3rd Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

41

50th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Alberta Regiment)

41

  13th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Quebec Regiment)

39

4th Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

38

  Green Howards – Yorkshire Regiment

38

Durham Light Infantry

36

  87th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Quebec Regiment)

35

Australian units

34

  Lancashire Fusiliers

30

44th Bn. Canadian Inf. (New Brunswick Regiment)

29

  Manchester Regiment

29

Royal Field Artillery

29

  75th Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

28

Cameron Highlanders

26

  Machine Gun Corps – Infantry

26

Border Regiment

25

  Gordon Highlanders

25

Bedfordshire Regiment

24

  Cheshire Regiment

24

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

22

  47th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Western Ontario Regiment)

21

29th Bn. Canadian Inf. (British Columbia Regiment)

19

  Duke of Wellington – West Riding Regiment

19

West Yorkshire Regiment

19

  54th Bn. Canadian Inf. (2nd Central Ontario Regiment)

18

102nd Bn. Canadian Inf. (2nd Central Ontario Regiment)

18

  East Surrey Regiment

18

Essex Regiment

18

  York & Lancaster Regiment

18

24th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Quebec Regiment)

17

  Norfolk Regiment

17

Seaforth Highlanders

17

  Royal Naval Division

16

Gloucester Regiment

15

  1st Bn. Canadian Pioneers

14

Highland Light Infantry

12

  Queen’s – Royal West Surrey Regiment

12

South Staffordshire Regiment

12

  46th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Saskatchewan Regiment)

11

Royal Engineers

11

  18th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Western Ontario Regiment)

10

38th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Eastern Ontario Regiment)

10

  East Lancashire Regiment

10

72nd Bn. Canadian Inf. (British Columbia Regiment)

9

  Royal Scots – Lothian Regiment

9

King’s Own Scottish Borderers

8

  King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

8

Middlesex Regiment

8

  Royal Fusiliers – City of London Regiment

8

Royal West Kent Regiment – Queen’s Own

8

  Black Watch – Royal Highlanders

7

31st Bn. Canadian Inf. (Alberta Regiment)

7

  67th Bn. Canadian Pioneers

7

Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

7

  Royal Scots Fusiliers

7

28th Bn. (Saskatchewan Regiment)

6

  2nd Bn. Canadian Inf. (Eastern Ontario Regiment)

5

11th Brig. Canadian Field Artillery

5

  73rd Bn. Canadian Inf. (Royal Highlanders)

5

Hertfordshire Regiment

5

  Lincolnshire Regiment

5

24th Bn. London Regiment – The Queen’s

5

  Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

5

Royal Berkshire Regiment

5

  Cameronians – Scottish Rifles

4

15th Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

4

  26th Bn. Canadian Inf. (New Brunswick Regiment)

4

78th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Manitoba Regiment)

4

  East Yorkshire Regiment

4

King’s Liverpool Regiment

4

  King’s Royal Rifle Corps

4

Sherwood Foresters – Notts. & Derbys Regiment

4

  Tank Corps

4

Worcestershire Regiment

4

  20th Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

3

22nd Bn. Canadian Inf. (Quebec Regiment)

3

  21st Bn. London Regiment First – Surrey Rifles

3

Rifle Brigade

3

  Royal Canadian Regiment

3

Royal Welsh Fusiliers

3

  19th Bn. Canadian Inf. (1st Central Ontario Regiment)

2

43rd Bn. Canadian Inf. (Manitoba Regiment)

2

  Canadian Machine Gun Corps

2

King’s Shropshire Light Infantry

2

  Leicestershire Regiment

2

Northamptonshire Regiment

2

  Royal Army Medical Corps

2

Royal Irish Regiment

2

  Royal Sussex Regiment

2

Somerset Light Infantry

2

  5th Bn. Canadian Inf. (CMR, Quebec Regiment)

1

6th Bn. Canadian Machine Gun Corps

1

  8th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Manitoba Regiment)

1

14th Bn. Canadian Inf. (Quebec Regiment)

1

  21st Bn. Canadian Inf. (Eastern Ontario Regiment)

1

Canadian Army Medical Corps

1

  Highland Cyclist Bn.

1

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

1

  Royal Army Service Corps

1

Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force

1

  Royal Garrison Artillery

1

Suffolk Regiment

1

  South Wales Borderers

1

Identified burials

1473

      Unidentified burials:       United Kingdom – sailors, soldiers and airmen

1170

Canadian units

512

Australian units

19

New Zealand units

6

Wholly unidentified

5

Total Unidentified burials

1712

      Total burials

3185

Walter Cuthbert Blythe, killed 100 years ago on or about this day, during the Battle of Courcelette.

When five days had passed the Ingleside people began to feel that they might be cheerful again. Rilla dashed about the kitchen helping Susan with the breakfast and singing so sweetly and clearly that Cousin Sophia across the road heard her and croaked out to Mrs. Albert,

"'Sing before eating, cry before sleeping,' I've always heard."

But Rilla Blythe shed no tears before the nightfall. When her father, his face grey and drawn and old, came to her that afternoon and told her that Walter had been killed in action at Courcelette she crumpled up in a pitiful little heap of merciful unconsciousness in his arms. Nor did she waken to her pain for many hours.

x-x-x

One day the Piper came down the Glen, Sweet and long and low played he! The children followed from door to door, No matter how those who loved might implore, So wiling the song of his melody, As the song of a woodland rill.

Someday the Piper will come again To pipe the sons of the maple tree! You and I will follow from door to door, Many of us will come back no more..... What matter that if Freedom still Be the crown of each native hill?

x-x-x

Yes, I'm glad I came, Rilla. It isn't only the fate of the little sea-born island I love that is in the balance–nor of Canada nor of England. It's the fate of mankind. That is what we're fighting for. And we shall win–never for a moment doubt that, Rilla. For it isn't only the living who are fighting–the dead are fighting too. Such an army cannot be defeated.

And you will tell your children of the idea we fought and died for–teach them it must be lived for as well as died for, else the price paid for it will have been given for nought.

x-x-x

Of all the books I have read, of all the fictional characters I have seen die, none affected me quite so much as the death of Walter Blythe. And the final letter - the talk of the red rain, of the army of the dead and of making sure the next generation, and the next, and the next, knew why these young men had gone abroad to fight and die and that that knowledge should never been forgotten - has always stuck with me.

“Rilla of Ingleside” is, by far and away, one of the best books I have read and one that affects me more than any other.

Kigi | Joffre’s position | 20 Aug 1916

Joffre’s hopes General Joffre has been bombarding General Haig with requests to launch a major offensive almost night and day since Haig’s little dinner joke last week. Interestingly, in his memoirs, he claims that the first day on the Somme had shown that the BEF was incapable of launching the kind of large multiple-army offensives that he had ordered in 1915. And yet, here he is trying to…

Kigi | Joffre’s position | 20 Aug 1916

Joffre’s hopes General Joffre has been bombarding General Haig with requests to launch a major offensive almost night and day since Haig’s little dinner joke last week. Interestingly, in his memoirs, he claims that the first day on the Somme had shown that the BEF was incapable of launching the kind of large multiple-army offensives that he had ordered in 1915. And yet, here he is trying to…