Text and Illustrations:
Regina Trench Cemetery, France.
On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Grandcourt Village was reached by part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, but it was not until the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, early in February 1917, that it was occupied by patrols of the Howe Battalion, Royal Naval Division.
To the South-East of it is Courcelette, taken
by the 2nd Canadian Division on 15 September 1916.
Regina Trench was a German earthwork, captured
for a time by the 5th Canadian Brigade on 1 October 1916, attacked again by the 1st and 3rd Canadian Divisions on
8 October 1916, taken in part by the 18th and 4th Canadian Divisions on 21 October 1916, and finally cleared by the
4th Canadian Division on 11 November 1916.
The original part of the Cemetery (now Plot II,
Rows A to D) was made in the Winter of 1916-1917.
The Cemetery was completed after the Armistice,
in November 1918, when graves were brought in from
the battlefields of Courcelette, Grandcourt, and Miraumont; most date from October 1916 to February 1917.
Two considerable groups of scattered graves,
classed as Cemeteries, were concentrated in to Regina Trench Cemetery:- Courcelette Road Cemetery, Miraumont, was
on the West side of West Miraumont Road, between Courcelette and Miraumont, and in it were buried
soldiers from Canada and from the United Kingdom,
who fell in September-November 1916.
Miraumont British Cemetery, on the East side of the same road, contained the graves of soldiers from Canada and from the United Kingdom, who fell in September-December 1916.
Regina Trench Cemetery now contains 2,279
burials and Commemorations of the First World War.
1,077 of the burials are unidentified, but there
are special memorials to fourteen casualties
believed to be buried among them.
One American Airman is also buried in the Cemetery.
The Cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
During this time of Lent 2026, let us remember The Fallen (R.I.P.) in Regina Trench Cemetery and all their Comrades.
May They Rest In Peace.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Web-Site can be accessed
No comments:
Post a Comment