| Memorial: | PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium |
| Grave Reference/ Panel Number: |
Panel 7 |
| Location: | The Ploegsteert Memorial stands in Berks
Cemetery Extension, which is located 12.5 kilometres south of Ieper town
centre, on the N365 leading from Ieper to Mesen (Messines), Ploegsteert
and on to Armentieres. From Ieper town centre the Rijselsestraat runs from
the market square, through the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) and directly over
the crossroads with the Ieper ring road. The road name then changes to the
Rijselseweg (N336). 3.5 kilometres along the N336 lies a fork junction
with the N365. The N365, which forms the right hand fork, leads to the
town of Mesen. The Cemetery lies 3 kilometres beyond Mesen on the right
hand side of the N365, and opposite Hyde Park Corner Royal Berks Cemetery.
The Memorial commemorates over 11,000 men who have no known grave. They
fought throughout the War on Belgian soil beside French troops, and died
in France or Belgium when the frontier was of little interest in this area
in which trench warfare lasted longest. The Memorial is a covered circular
colonnade, 20 metres across and 11 metres high, enclosing an open space,
and is entered by an opening between two stone lions. The names of the
dead are carved on panels set in the walls of the colonnade. They belonged
to thirty-six different Divisions and to a hundred Regiments; of these
Regiments the Rifle Brigade with 559 names, the Northumberland Fusiliers
with 535 and the Durham Light Infantry with 444 claim the largest
individual shares. |
| Historical Information: | The Memorial in Berks Cemetery Extension, Ploegsteert, is one of those erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to record the names of the officers and men who fell in the Great War and whose graves are not known. It serves the area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warneton, on the north to the line Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes on the south, in which the best-known features are the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert Wood; and it covers the period from the arrival of the III Corps in this area in 1914 to the date of the Armistice with Germany. The Battles of Ypres and Messines fall to the north of these limits, and the Offensives of 1915 mainly to the south; the normal state of the area, during the greater part of the War, was one of trench warfare. The Memorial is a covered circular colonnade, 20 metres across and eleven metres high, enclosing an open space, and entered by an opening between two stone lions. The names of the dead are carved on panels set in the walls of the colonnade. They belonged to thirty-six different Divisions and to a hundred Regiments; of these Regiments the Rifle Brigade with 559 names, the Northumberland Fusiliers with 535 and the Durham Light Infantry with 444 claim the largest individual shares. |