AVELUY COMMUNAL cemetery EXTENSION

Aveluy is a village in the Department of the Somme , immediately north of Albert. The Communal Cemetery is in the village and the extension is on the south side of it. It is signposted in the village.

Aveluy Communal Cemetery is in the village, and the Extension is on the south side of it. The village was held by British forces, in succession to the French, from July 1915, to the 26th March 1918; and the Extension, begun by the French, was continued by our units and Field Ambulances from August 1915, to March 1917. In the latter month the 3rd and 9th Casualty Clearing Stations began to use it, and the 9th remained until November 1917. On the 26th-27th March 1918, the village and the cemetery passed into German hands; they were retaken at the end of August, and two more graves were dug in Row J. The Extension covers an area of 4,201 square yards. It contains the graves of 549 soldiers and Marines from the United Kingdom ; 54 soldiers from Australia and seven from Canada ; and two men of the Indian Labour Corps and one of the South African Native Labour Corps. Twenty-seven graves are those of unidentified men; and three graves, the positions of which cannot now be stated, are represented by special memorials. The 30 French and eight German graves were removed to other cemeteries; and to this fact is due the irregular numbering of the Rows.

Further Information

Because it was a cemetery used by many medical units located in Aveluy there is a high proportion of known graves here. Burials are dominated by men who died in the fighting between Thiepval and Ovillers.