Silent City's

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The most unforgettable memory of visiting the WW1 battlefields on the western front is the number, variety and individuality of the British cemeteries. Even before the war had ended it was decided that the permanent British cemeteries would, in the words of Winston Churchill "be an abiding and supreme memorial to the efforts and the glory of the British Army". At that time the body that over saw the work was called the Imperial War Graves Commission, created in 1917, its title was changed in 1967 to Commonwealth Graves Commission.

Work began even before the war ended, with the French and Belgians giving free gifts of land, and the Army Graves Service (AGS) preparing cemeteries in the safer areas for take over by the War Graves Commission (WGC). The British Army had for a long time had a policy that those killed would be buried in that country where they died, they could be moved in that country but not out of it. The War graves Commission felt that a higher ideal than private burial would be found in war cemeteries where "those who fought and fell together officers and men, lie together in there last resting place. The massive work began of constructing the cemeteries as soon as the war finished. the AGC and the WGC jointly decided the number,size and location of the permanent cemeteries and the Army gathered in body's from the more isolated cemeteries which were to be closed and searched the battlefields for isolated graves and lost body's, the main Somme battlefields were searched 6 times. The WGC got architects to design each cemeteries individually and locals to carry out the work. UK and Empire dead were treated equally, though some segregation of graves by colour of skin is to be found, and officers are buried separately from other ranks in rear areas, but those distinctions were made by the Army and not the WGC.

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The policy of repatriation of body's was changed in the mid 1960's, when the British Army was fighting in Borneo, and no suitable ground for the construction of cemeteries could be found.

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The Thiepval Memorial on the Somme was deliberately made as a Anglo-French cemeteries to commemorate the joint effort of the 2 Army's in the 1916 battle, and 2 others atCerisy on the river Somme and at Crucifix corner near Villers- Bretonneux have French and British plots side by sides a reminder of shared sacrifices in other battles. There were no other national distinctions in British cemeteries until after 1945,when the Canadians, who served with such courage on the Western in both wars, secured the privilege of having certain cemeteries which contain a high number of there mens graves and are designated Canadian, having there badge a Maple Leaf on the entrance and a special visitors books, and in some places the word Canadian as part of the name of the cemeteries. You will also find in many British cemeteries the graves of German soldiers, (quite a lot on the 1918 battlefields, as with the great German offensive in 1918 they advanced in some places up to 40 miles, then with the battles of the last 100 days and the British advance, both sides used the same cemeteries) and whose body's have been allowed to remain undisturbed along side those of the British. This is in contrast to the French, Belgian and American attitude to German graves. The French military cemeteries contain British of allied graves, but never German 1s, the American are exclusively American.

The 1st 2 cemeteries on the Somme Forcevlle and Louvencourt were completed in 1920, but all work did not end until 1935, where Serre Road Cemeteries no2 was completed, by that time 150,000 British dead had been buried in 242 military cemeteries in the Somme department. One cemeteries on the Somme was left open, London Cemetery Extension at High Wood, body's were still being found on the battlefields, and no less that 38,000 were found in France and Belgium between the end of the official British searches in Sept 1921 and WW2. The cemetery at High Wood was used until the 1950's when it became full. France and Belgium each have 1 open cemetery for 1914-18 finds, Terlincthum near Boulogne and Cement House near Langemarck. About 5 British war dead from 1914-18 are still found each year.

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The British cemeteries can be split into 5 diff types (this is a Martin Middlebrook interpretation, but is a good way to suss out the diff cemeteries, see The Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields.... pen and sword military books) The first is the battlefield cemetery, where the burials took place actually on the ground where they died in an attack. If the attack was successful then the burials took place within hours, usually by the mens own units, sometimes in a large shell hole or trench, sometimes the little cemeteries created was reserved for 1 battalion and identification was high. If an attack was not successful the bodies could lie out in no-mans land for days, months or even years, but the little cemeteries where still made, but with more in the way of unidentified and mixed units. Battlefield cemeteries are easily identified , they are usually small, confined to a few dates of death and are in isolated locations away from any roads. There were 100s of these cemeteries at the end of WW1, but most had to be emptied due to the cost of permanent maintenance and the bodyswere concentrated else where. On the Somme the are 3 areas where they were allowed to remain, from Serre to Beaumont-Hamel down to the river Ancre, Mametz and Fricourt, and the area to the S/East where the Canadian Corps attacked Villers-Bretonneux in Aug 1918, they are really good on getting u orientated to the battlefield and at most u are actually standing in no-mans land, and can work out where the opposing trench lines where, see a hedge or wood have a bit of a look and u will find the remains of trench's.

The second type is to be found a few hundred yards behind the front lines, and were made during the times of routine trench warfare. these cemeteries are usually found near a farm track or country lane, or close behind a front line village. the men buried here were those killed whilst in the trench's, and carried out by there mates and buried, or were wounded and died in a forward dressing station. Martin Middlebrook calls these comrades cemeteries, I do too! Some of those have survived too, and when you are in ether these you are right on the old front line.

Not far further behind are the communal cemeteries, where small plots of British graves are to be found in French civilian cemeteries. Those buried here are often the earliest deaths when British units first arrived there, and before military cemeteries were made., they can be quite a contrast with the neat rows of the WGC kept graves and the scruffy civilian plots. When these areas got full an extension to the cemetery was made.

Further away from the fighting area are the areas where the main dressing stations and casualty clearing stations received the wounded from the front, these units usually stayed in the same area for months on end and were able to bury there dead in fields near by. Further back still were the large base hospitals near the channel ports which remained static for several years and built up huge cemeteries.these medical unit cemeteries are characterized by careful layout, usually by segregation of officers from other ranks, by a large mixture of units, and by a almost total identification of the men. You like Army badges like me , the headstones go on for ever, also it is interesting to notice the surge in burials immediately after a major battle, because the dead were buried in chronological order.

But returning to the battlefields the WGC found that it had to provide new burial places for thousands of body's because of the closing of small cemeteries and the discovery of scattered graves as the searches continues. The answer was the concentration cemetery, these now dominate the most densely fought over areas such as the 1916 Somme area.

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The pure new concentration cemeteries were made on new sites,by the road with easy access for visitors. The graves were laid out usually in rows of 10. To look at the image is symbolic of an large army unit on parade, symbolic of soldiers still serving. Such cemeteries were usually called after there place they were made. Delville Wood and Warlencourt cemeteries on the 1916 battlefield are good examples of the pure concentration cemetery. Most of the men in them came from the surrounding area. A lot of these concentration cemetery's were made around existing, or added as an extension to a battlefield cemetery, sometimes by filling a gap in between a cemetery in a field and a road. If the original cemetery was a small 1, its identity was preserved by being being designated plot 1, and retaining the original soldiers name for the cemetery. A good example is Tyne Cott in the Salient and Caterpillar Valley on the 1916 Somme battlefield, it originally had the graves of 25 men, it is now surrounded by more that 5000 graves, in 31 plots.

Concentration cemeteries are not intimate, but they are breath taking , conveying the heavy casualty's in certain areas. The variety of regimental badges of interest, but a lot of the graves are "Known Unto God" unidentified. Rudyard Kipling, a member of the WGC, whose son was killed at the battle of Loos 1915, and has no known grave and could be buried in a concentration cemetery (read "My Boy Jack" ISBN 0-85052-859-3 Leo Cooper books) had such places in mind when he coined the phrase "the silent city's" for the war cemeteries..
the later stages of the post war construction on the 1916 battlefield ran into difficulty's, and resulted in the movement of body's, sometimes over long distances. A few determined relatives insisted that bodies should remain where they were first buried and many erected private memorials over there loved ones. the WGC persuaded most family's to allow the bodies to be brought from these isolated places into the regular cemeteries in the 1950s. But there are still some out there, and well worth tracking down.

There was a lot of discussion and argument on what type of marker each grave should have, and it was decided that the grave stone would not be a cross but a standard sized headstone for every soldier, representing equality in death what ever is rank or religion, the erection of private crosses or memorials was banned, only a few that had already been erected were allowed to remain. Next of kin were told that headstones would incorporate an engraved cross, unless the family wanted this to be omitted, the star of David was the only other religious symbol allowed. relatives were also allowed to choose a inscription not to exceed 66 letters the gaps counting as 1 letter. It was decided to charge for the inscription 3 pence half penny, to a max of £1. There were some objections to this charge, New Zealanders did not allow personal inscriptions and refused in both WWs. Canada would not allow there family's to be charged and there Government paid for it. The charge was voluntary, and seeing that most of the working classes of Britain were living in poverty you will see so many British headstones with no inscription!!

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That spell checkers good init lol

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So the headstones were made, on the western front portland stone was used. On the face were engraved the soldiers name, regimental number(but not for officers), age if supplied by next of kin), date of death, and the name and badge of his corps or regiment, as well as the cross. If the man had won the Victoria cross or the rarer George cross, a large engraving of the medal would replace the cross. Any inscription would be placed at the foot of the headstone, many of these are very moving! This is the way the stone was set out for an identified soldier. If the burials were so close that there was not enough space for each body to have its own headstone then 1 headstone would contain the details of up to 3 men, if 2 the cross was omitted, 3 regimental badges also, and a wall would be built and the buried mens badges put on there.

Large numbers of the dead could not be identified, but, unlike the French and Germans, the British did not use mass graves for such bodies and every British soldier whose body was found has his own grave. For those completely unidentified the headstone has "A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR" above the cross and below it "KNOWN UNTO GOD"- another phrase contributed by Rudyard Kipling. There were many partial identifications when a mans rank or regiment, or date of death or he was from 1 of the empire countries was known, in such cases the known details were inscribed on the headstone, but "KNOWN UNTO GOD" always remained.

The cemeteries made during the following years remain unchanged, all but the very smallest have a cross of sacrifice and a stone of remembrance. The stone cross of sacrifice has a sword attached to its face to symbolize both the military character of the cemetery and its religious affiliation of the majority of the dead. There are 4 sizes of cross.

Type A1, 14 Half Feet 40-250 burials
Type A , 20 Feet 251-2,000 burials
Type B , 25 Feet over 2,000 burials
Type C , 30 feet for special cases.

The Stone of Remembrance is a large alter shaped stone, mounted on 3 low steps, weighing 12 tonnes and cost then £500 to produce and install. On its side are engraved the words "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE".
Open spaces in the cemeteries are grassed and there are trees and bushes, with flower beds along the bases of the headstones. In most cases there are rose bushes in the flower beds, so that the shadow of an English rose falls across every grave at sometime of the day. Every cemetery has a register, and a book so that visitors can make comments and leave there names.
The British cemeteries are never locked and are open all through the year.

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The French had an immense task after 1918 of clearing the battlefields and burying there dead. It is passable that the French were more used to war on the continental scale and so they did not put the money nor the emotional originality into the construction of there permanent cemeteries, which are all concentration type. there are 21 of these national cemeteries in the Somme department, 64,757 WW1, 2,436 WW2 graves. The standard soldiers grave was marked by a simple cross, a small plate hard to read gave only the briefest of details of the man buried. Those Frenchmen who's families did not want a crosshad a plane headstone, and the many Muslim soldiers of the colonial units were given a headstone with a curved, Moorish style top. most of the unidentified dead were buried in mass graves, ossuaires, at the rear of cemeteries. A few British soldiers were sometimes buried in them, and a few bomber crews from WW2, the smart light colored British headstones now looking strange among the Grey French crosses. There are no German graves, they were the enemy and were sent else where.
The French cemeteries may lack the variety of the British 1s, but they are impressive in other ways. The tricolor flies every day, and the sheer numbers of graves tells the huge French sacrifice of 1914-18, and old soldiers will always be found standing at attention in the osseries, making sure no one speaks..

The German had even less opportunity to make attractive cemeteries after WW1. There country was suffering economic depression and the French and Belgians were not so keen to be giving them land for there dead. Once again the concentration cemeteries was the answer, but this time with even fewer and larger ones than the French. There are 13 German WW1 concentration cemeteries in the Somme dept, large mass graves, Kameradengraber, contain most of the unidentified. For many years the German cemeteries were simple burial grounds with gradualy decaying wooded crosses, but in the last 20 years thing have changed, and The German War Graves Organization has replaced the crosses with smart new metal or stone crosses and markers. The larger cemeteries have also been given visitor centers, chapels and maps of the battlefields and new registers. During the summer months groups of young Germans can be found working in them.

The Americans were latecomers to WW1, and the first action by a complete American Division was on the Somme. The American soldiers who died were buried with French and British, but there bodies were later collected up and ether taken back to the USA, or concentrated in a new Somme American cemeteries. This cemetery has the usual high quality standard American military cemeteries, a marble cross or star of David for each grave, a chapel, a tall flagpole and an American flag, detailed records a visitors center and resident custodian, and the most meticulous horticultural care. It is strictly American with no other nationality's buried here

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perhaps the saddest casualty's were those men who's bodies were never found or could not be identified. the WGC decided that every British soldiers name should be commemorated, ether on his grave or on a memorial. Headstones were erected along the walls of British cemeteries,"KNOWN TO BE BURIED" or "BELIEVED TO BE BURIED" in the cemeteries. Small memorials blocks, again with headstones for each man, are also to be found for those whose who had been buried in a cemeteries during the war but whose graves were destroyed by shell fire or other wise lost. These headstones are the same type as those of ordinary burials, with family inscriptions if requested, if not the standard inscription "THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT" is engraved upon them. there are no graves beneath these headstones, they are those mens memorials. for the much larger number of British missing large purpose built memorials to the missing were built on the principle battlefield sectors. The American missing are also recorded on memorials but these are always at one of there cemeteries. The French and German do not normally have such memorials.
There is a host of other memorials to units of every size, memorials to individual soldiers killed. their variety is almost limitless and they are an important part of battlefield touring. French memorials often contain strong anti German sentiments, and in WW2 the Germans removed some of these, after the liberation a new crop arose with even more violent wording. The Germans were allowed nothing. The memorials erected by there units during WW1 some quite substantial ones were all destroyed after the armistice, and no new memorial of any kind was permitted by the French of Belgians. An interesting type is the demarcation stones, erected to mark the limit if the German advances in spring 1918, each 1 surmounted by a helmet and the equipment of the Army that held the German advance in that area. The Belgians followed this rule the French did not, all the stones in France have French helmets even in those sectors where the British troops halted the Germans! More that 100 were erected, the money came from public donations and the name of the town or organization paying for each stone carved in its base. Some were destroyed by the Germans in 1940 and others have be removed in road wideing or removed after being damaged, only a few are left in France rather more in Belgium, my favorite is at Hellfire corner just out side Ypres, you can see just how close the Germans got to taking the town.

Thats this article finished hope some of you enjoyed it.

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