The CWGC Experience - Commonwealth War Graves in France

FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY

Faubourg D’Amiens Cemetery is found in the town of Arras, in the Pas de Calais department of France, close to the CWGC Experience in Beaurains. 

It was formed in March 1916 adjacent to a large French military cemetery, and was used throughout the war. The cemetery was further extended after the war as casualties were brought from smaller burial sites in the region. 

The cemetery contains more than 2,650 burials of World War One as well as the Arras Memorial, which commemorates nearly 35,000 Commonwealth casualties who have no known grave, and the Arras Flying Services Memorial, which commemorates nearly 1000 airmen of the First World War who were lost in the skies over the Western Front. 

ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Etaples Military Cemetery is the largest CWGC cemetery in France, with nearly 12,000 burials. 

Etaples was home to the principle staging post and transport depot, due to its position on the coast and proximity to the important ports of Calais and Boulogne, as well as vital rail links with the front lines. Due to its position away from the fighting, It was home to as many as eleven hospitals during the war. 

The casualties buried here were either evacuated from the front lines for medical care and later died of their wounds, died in transit or were brought to the cemetery after the war from other burial sites. 119 Second World War burials can also be found here. 

VIS-EN-ARTOIS BRITISH CEMETERY

Vis-en-Artois sits on the main road between Arras and Cambrai, and was occupied by the German forces from September 1914 until its liberation in August 1918. 

Vis-en-Artois, and nearby Haucort, were taken by the Allied forces during the Battle of the Scarpe, part of the Hundred Days offensive which paved the way to the end of the war in Europe. 

The cemetery itself was formed immediately after the capture of the region, and was used until the middle of October, with nearly 300 Canadian burials and 55 British burials there. Following the end of the war, the cemetery was enlarged and used for the burials of nearly 2,400 World War One soldiers from other sites, including men from The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Germany. Nearly 1,500 of the burials here remain unidentified. 

BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY

One of the most famous World War Two battles in France was Operation Overlord - the invasion of Normandy. 

On 6 June 1944, a combined Allied force launched the largest naval invasion ever seen against five Normandy beaches: Gold, Sword, Omaha, Utah and Juno. While the invasion was a success, the fighting on the beaches and the push into the calvados countryside cost thousands of lives on both sides. 

The first French town to be liberated following the invasion was the historic town of Bayeux, which became the site of the Bayeux War Cemetery, where more than 4,000 Commonwealth war dead are buried, as well as about 500 war graves of other nations, the majority German. 

The cemetery is home to the Bayeux Memorial, which bears the names of 1,800 men of the Commonwealth land forces who died during the invasion and in the early days of the campaign and who have no known grave.

DUNKIRK TOWN CEMETERY

Another of the most well known actions of World War Two in France was the evacuation of Dunkirk. 

Following the declaration of war in 1939, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to help defend France and Belgium from an expected German invasion. The invasion came in May 1940, and the German Blitzkrieg - lightning war - overwhelmed the defenders, pushing them back to the French coast. 

Against such a formidable attack, the British, Belgian and French armies were pushed back to the French coast, and the decision was made to evacuate as many men as possible to avoid their capture or destruction. The port of Dunkirk, in the Hauts-de-France region of France was chosen for the evacuation. 

The combined efforts of the Royal Navy and the famed ‘little ships’ to evacuate the soldiers, the efforts of the RAF to prevent German bombing raids, and multiple rear-guard actions to delay the advancing Germans, meant that nearly 340,000 Allied troops were evacuated from the European mainland. 

Dunkirk Town Cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 800 World War Two war casualties, of which more than 200 are unidentified. The cemetery is also home to the Dunkirk Memorial which commemorates more than 4,500 Commonwealth war dead who died in France in 1939 and 1940 and who have no known grave. 

DIEPPE CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY

Operation Jubilee, the raid on Dieppe by a predominantly Canadian Allied Force, was one of the most costly operations of the Second World War.

Although a naval landing on the French coast, Operation Jubilee was not a full invasion. Instead, its objectives were to capture the port of Dieppe, destroy important military targets in the area, gather vital intelligence at the same time, and then to depart.

Instead, the invading force found well prepared defences, and more than half were killed, captured, wounded or missing by the time the raiding forces withdrew. The heavy losses taught the Allies valuable lessons that would later influence the planning and eventual success of the invasion of Normandy.

Nearly 1000 of those who died during Operation Jubilee are today buried at Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery, the vast majority of whom are Canadian.