Sfax War Cemetery

• Country Tunisia
• Total identified casualties 1204 Find these casualties
• Identified casualties from First & Second World War
• GPS Coordinates Latitude: 34.72069, Longitude: 10.73326

Location information

The town of Sfax is approximately 270 kilometres south of Tunis and can now be reached by autoroute from Tunis. The War Cemetery is located approximately 2 kilometres south of the town centre on the road to Gabes.

Visiting information

ARRIVAL

Routes to the cemetery from Sfax are signposted.

PARKING

There is no allocated parking for the cemetery, it is possible to park off the main road in front of the main entrance.

ACCESS, LAYOUT AND MAIN ENTRANCE

The cemetery is a large rectangular shape with the Cross of Sacrifice at the centre of the cemetery in line with the Shelter at the rear of the site.

The main entrance has two (approximately 1 metre each wide), tall metal gates. The gate is not locked and can be pushed open into the cemetery. Access to the entrance gate is down four steps onto a loose gravel area or down a narrow ramp approximately 1 metre wide. There is a small step up from the gravel to the paving under the gates.

The main burial areas have grass paths and are flat.

There is a stone bench in the cemetery on the left side in line with the Cross of Sacrifice, and inside the shelter building.

The Register Box is located inside the shelter building. The register and visitor book can only be viewed during gardener’s working hours, please see below.

Metal gates leading to the Indian Army burial plot are approximately 1.0 metre wide and located on either side of the shelter building at the rear of the main cemetery. A gravel pathway, approximately 70 m long leads to the plot though the general cemetery.

The Indian Army burial plot is surrounded with a hedge and metal fence and has a stone bench in the most shaded part of the cemetery. The pathway leading from the main cemetery is uncompacted gravel.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The cemetery is permanently open, the cemetery gates are unlocked, and it is possible to visit at any time however, the register box and visitors booked are secured outside of the gardener’s working hours.

I visitors wish to see the Register or sign the Visitors book, they should visit Sfax War cemetery during the gardener’s hours which are as follows:

SUMMER:

July & August Mon - Thurs 0630 – 1430

Friday 0630 – 1330

WINTER:

September to June Mon - Thurs 0700 – 1200

RAMADAN: Mon – Fri 0700 -1400

History information

In May 1943, the war in North Africa came to an end in Tunisia with the defeat of the Axis powers by a combined Allied force.

In the south, the Axis forces defeated in Egypt at El Alamein withdrew into Tunisia along the coast through Libya, pursued by the Allied Eighth Army. Most of those buried in Sfax War Cemetery died in attacks on successive Axis positions at Medenine, the Marith Line and Wadi Akarit, in March and April 1943.

The cemetery contains 1,253 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 52 of them unidentified.

The single First World War grave in Sfax War Cemetery was brought in from Bizerta Sidi Saleru Muslim Cemetery in March 1983.

There is also 1 Greek soldier of the 1939-45 war buried here.