SOUTH AFRICAN COMMONWEALTH WAR CASUALTIES BURIED ACROSS THE WORLD – PART NINETY-TWO.

By Captain (SAN) Charles Ross (SA Navy Retired)

South Africans participated in almost every war theatre during the First and Second World Wars. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Data Base 7 290 (includes 607 unknown) First World War casualties and 9 986 (includes 84 unknown) Second World War casualties are buried in 1 207 cemeteries. In contrast, 2 959 First World War and 2 005 Second World War casualties are commemorated on 48 memorials. This does not include the more than 2 700 South Africans not recently commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A new memorial, Cape Town Labour Corps has been constructed in the Gardens in Cape Town and was unveiled by HRH Princess Royal on 22 January 2025.

BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY – FRANCE

The Allied offensive in north-western Europe began with the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944.

There was little actual fighting in Bayeux although it was the first French town of importance to be liberated. Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France and contains burials brought in from the surrounding districts and from hospitals that were located nearby.

BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY, completed in 1952, contains 4,144 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 338 unidentified. There are also over 500 war graves of other nationalities, the majority German.

The BAYEUX MEMORIAL stands opposite the cemetery and bears the names of more than 1,800 men of the Commonwealth land forces who died in the campaign’s early stages and have no known grave. They died during the Normandy landings, intense fighting in Normandy itself, and advance to the River Seine in August.

One South African casualties from World War Two is buried in this cemetery.

BAPAUME POST MILITARY – FRANCE

Bapaume Post Military Cemetery lies on the west side of “Tara Hill,” and south-west of “Usna Hill,” and at times it was called by those names. In June 1916, the front line crossed the Bapaume road between the site of this cemetery and the village of La Boisselle. The attack on La Boisselle on 1 July was not successful, and several days passed before the village was taken. The cemetery was begun almost at once by the divisions engaged in this sector and 152 graves in Plot I, Rows B to I, were made before the end of January 1917, when the cemetery was closed.

On 26 March 1918, the cemetery, with the town of Albert, fell into German hands, but it was recovered towards the end of August. After the Armistice, graves from the battlefields east and west of the cemetery were brought in, including many of the 34th (Tyneside) Division, which attacked along the Bapaume road on 1 July 1916, and some of the 38th (Welsh) Division, which recaptured Usna Hill on 23 August 1918.

The cemetery now contains 410 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 181 of the burials are unidentified, but there are special memorials to three casualties believed to be buried among them.

The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.

One South African casualties from World War One is buried in this cemetery.

BEAULENCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY – FRANCE

The cemetery was made originally by the 3rd, 4th, 43rd and 58th Casualty Clearing Stations, which were posted in Beaulencourt at different periods after the middle of September, 1918; and the burials from these hospitals are in Plot I, Rows A to D. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the neighbouring battlefields and from certain other cemeteries, including:- BEAULENCOURT CHURCHYARD, in which two soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the enemy in 1918. BEAULENCOURT GERMAN CEMETERIES, one a little North of the village on the West side of the road to Bapaume, and another at the Southern exit of the village. These two cemeteries were used by German medical units in 1916 and 1918; and they contained, besides German graves, those of 50 soldiers from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, which have been removed partly to Beaulencourt British Cemetery, and partly to Favreuil. GREVILLERS GERMAN CEMETERY, on the road from Grevillers to Bihucourt, in which 500 German soldiers and 12 from the United Kingdom were buried by the Germans, and eleven New Zealand soldiers and one from the United Kingdom by their comrades in August, 1918. There are now over 700, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 300 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery covers an area of 2,917 square metres and is enclosed on three sides by a rubble wall.

One South African casualty from World War One is buried in this cemetery.

FLATIRON COPSE CEMETERY – FRANCE

Flatiron Copse was the name given by the army to a small plantation a little to the east of Mametz Wood. The ground was taken by the 3rd and 7th Divisions on 14 July 1916 and an advanced dressing station was established at the copse. The cemetery was begun later that month and it remained in use until April 1917. Two further burials were made in August 1918 and after the Armistice, more than 1,100 graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields and from smaller cemeteries.

There are now 1,572 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 420 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 36 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and nine buried in Mametz Wood Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

One South African casualty from World War One is buried in this cemetery.

BIGUGLIA WAR CEMETERY – FRANCE

The liberation of France truly commenced in September 1943. The first Department of France to be liberated was Corsica in Operation ‘Firebrand’ from September to October of 1943.

On 13 September 1943 twenty-six SOE (Special Operations Executive) agents (3 SOE instructor officers and the SOE-trained Free French ‘battalion de choc’) spearheaded an invasion of the island by the recently reconstituted French 1st Army Corps. With the help of the local Resistance and former occupying Italian troops (Italy had signed an armistice with the Allies on 9 September 1943) they set about evicting recently arrived German troops. The last Germans were evicted from Bastia on 4 October 1943.

The island was then transformed into a massive airbase for the allied air forces. The Allies referred to the island as the ‘USS Corsica’ – treating the island as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. Many Allied bombing missions originated out of Corsica.

There are now 60, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site.

The cemetery was designed by George Vey.

One South African casualty from World War Two is buried in this cemetery.