Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery in La Gorgue, Nord-Pas-de-Calais

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Get directions La Gorgue, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Coordinates: 50.61017, 2.74869
Cemetery ID:

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Pont-du-Hem is a hamlet situated on the main road from La Bassee to Estaires, approximately 30 kilometres west of Lille.

The Cemetery was begun in an apple-orchard in July 1915 and used until April 1918 by Commonwealth fighting units and Field Ambulances; these original burials are in Plots I, II and III, and Rows A and B of Plot IV. Pont-du- Hem was taken by the Germans in April 1918 and held by them until mid- September. In April and May, 1918, German burials were made in Plots III and IV. After the Armistice, 426 German graves were removed to other cemeteries; Portuguese graves of 1917- 1918 were removed to the Portuguese cemetery of Richebourg-L'Avoue; and British graves were brought in from a number of smaller burial grounds and from the battlefields in the surrounding area.

There are now over 1500 World War I casualties commemorated at this site. Of these, over half are unidentified and special memorials are erected to nine soldiers from the United Kingdom believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 44 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from Canada, two from Australia and one of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, buried in this or other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire, and of five Indian soldiers whose bodies were cremated. The cemetery covers an area of 6,433 square metres.