Among these soldiers are buried General Janssen, commander of the 12th Motorized Infantry Division (DIM), killed on 2nd June 1940 during the aerial bombardments of the fort. There is a plaque at the entrance to Fort des Dunes, in remembrance of him and his men who fell alongside him during those first days of June 1940. A second plaque is dedicated “A la mémoire du Lieutenant Colonel Le Notre commandant les forces terrestres et aériennes de la première Armée des Officiers, Sous-officiers et soldats des F.T.A. tombés à leur poste de combat en ces lieux le 03 juin 1940 [To the memory of Our Lieutenant Colonel commanding the land and air forces of the first army of Officers, NCOs and soldiers of the FTA who fell at their battle stations at this place on 3rd June 1940].” In the fort, at the entrance to the Military Police building, a plaque honours the memory of the gendarmes of the Military Police of the 12th Motorized Infantry Division who died for France on 3rd June 1940. In the moat of the fort, there is a final plaque in memory of the eight resistant fighters who were shot dead on that very spot on 6th June 1944.

In the town cemetery nearby are two military plots containing 119 Belgian and 141 British soldiers and six military workers – five Egyptians and one Malagasy – who died as a result of their wounds in the same hospitals.

From the outset of operations in 1914, the civilian and military hospitals of Dunkirk and the surrounding area took in a great many wounded from the Yser front. Very soon, they were overwhelmed. Schools, care homes, even the Zuydcoote sanatorium and the Malo and Malo-Terminus casinos, were requisitioned to receive growing numbers of wounded.

The Battles of the Yser, 1914-18

After abandoning Antwerp and retreating from Flanders, the Belgian, French and British armies established a new front on the Yser, between the North Sea coast and Dixmude. Ten miles long, this sector was bitterly contested. To hold back the repeated attacks from the Germans, the Belgians resisted valiantly, using all the means at their disposal. In autumn, the dykes burst, flooding no man’s land and the enemy trenches. From 16 October, the naval fusiliers of Rear Admiral Ronarc’h’s brigade defended Dixmude inch by inch, alongside the 4th Moroccan Battalion, the 1st Algerian Battalion and the Belgian Army. 

After 25 days of uninterrupted fighting, on 10 November the enemy took Dixmude. Further south, at Ypres, from 31 October to 2 November, the enemy launched furious assaults that broke on the Franco-British lines. Neither adversary gave way. The first Battle of Ypres ended with no real result. The town remained at centre stage throughout the war, particularly in the spring of 1915, when a new weapon was tested: poison gas.

Throughout the conflict, ever more bloody operations were carried out in this sector, especially in spring 1915 and in summer 1917, when 240 000 British soldiers were killed.

Among these soldiers are buried the remains of two generals. Those of General Dame, commander of the 2nd North African Infantry Division (DINA) who died for France on 18th July 1940 during his captivity in the fortress of Königstein and those of General Mesny, commander of the 5th DINA. This general officer was executed on 19th January 1945 in retaliation for the death of the German General von Brodowsky on 28th October 1944.

178 graves also preserve the memory of Soviet prisoners of war or civilians arrested on the Eastern Front and deported to France to work in the mines or in the construction of the Atlantic Wall. Some antifascist Russian immigrants are also buried there.

The war cemetery also contains 21 graves of Russian soldiers who died during the First World War.

In 1915, the German army established, to the left of the communal cemetery, a military cemetery for burying the soldiers who died in combat or in the field hospitals. It contains 1,627 bodies, including 631 in a mass grave.

The French military cemetery in Keelung, Taiwan, contains the remains of over seven hundred officers, NCOs and soldiers killed on the battlefield during Admiral Courbet’s expedition in 1884-1885.

The history of the Keelung cemetery is linked to the French colonial adventure in the Far East.

Starting in 1858-1859, France carried out two military expeditions in China alongside the United Kingdom. Rigault de Genouilly took Saigon in February of 1859 and set up a naval base. Five years later, the Treaty of Saigon (5 June 1862) forced the Emperor of Annam to cede the provinces of South Vietnam. Increasingly interested in trade with China, Paris decided to form an expeditionary force in 1881 to take possession of Tonkin.

The 4,000 men under General Bouet, Admiral Courbet and Commissioner of the Republic Harmand, landed in the South and imposed a French protectorate. The Emperor of Annam took refuge in the North and asked Beijing, his suzerain, to intervene.

Admiral Courbet then decided to occupy the Pescadores Islands (Penghu) and Formosa (Taiwan) to dissuade any Chinese intervention on the peninsula. At the end of the month of August 1884, French ships bombarded the port of Keelung, in the north of the island of Formosa, and landed on the coast. With its steep, mountainous topography and a modern defence system (the area was equipped with Krupp cannons), the French troops had to settle for blockading the island after bombarding the port of Tamsui (in October), while awaiting reinforcements that arrived in January 1885. On 7 February, Admiral Courbet gave the order to attack the forts in Keelung.

Eight hundred French soldiers of the Foreign Legion took up the fight. The Chinese were nonetheless determined to hold firm: 30,000 men were stationed in the north of Formosa in March and the fortifications were constantly strengthened. The expeditionary force made slow, hard progress. Some one hundred men fell to take “Fort Bamboo”. Tropical fevers and cholera sidelined others. Admiral Courbet, needing a quick victory, changed his plans.

On 31 March, the French fleet gathered before the Pescadores Islands and bombarded their forts; the Chinese surrendered on 1 April – the blockade of Formosa was lifted a few weeks later.

On 9 June, 1885, the Treaty of Tientsin confirmed the French protectorate over Annam and put an end to the French occupation of the Pescadores. Nearly seven hundred soldiers had died during this expedition, 60% of them from illness.

Between June and July 1885, the French Corps of Engineers united their bodies at two military cemeteries at Keelung (Formosa – Taiwan) and Magong (Pescadores – Penghu). In 1890, the crew of the “L'Inconstant” erected a commemorative monument at Keelung that was placed under the protection of the Chinese authorities. In 1897, while Formosa was under Chinese domination, France signed an agreement for maintaining the graves with the island’s general government. The cemetery, initially located at the seaside, was moved by the Japanese in 1903, causing the destruction of 196 of the 200 steles at the site. In 1909, Keelung cemetery welcomed the remains of soldiers buried in northern Taiwan. The land chosen covers 0.1630 hectares (0.4 acres) at Tchong Pan Teou, in the Zhongzheng district of Keelung. In 1929, the French Embassy in Tokyo accepted to take charge and handle maintenance for the cemeteries in Keelung and Magong.

The end of the Japanese occupation of Formosa at the end of WWII left many graves abandoned. The soldiers’ bodies, the steles at the cemetery in Magong, and the ashes of Navy Infantry Lieutenant Louis Jehenne and of Marie Joseph Louis Dert, Deputy Navy Commissioner, were transferred on the “Pimodan” to Keelung cemetery in 1954.

The monument to the memory of Courbet, built on Mount Shetou in the bay of Fengkuei facing the port of Magong, was moved – the Admiral’s remains were brought back to France. A new commemorative monument, erected by the local authorities, was inaugurated on 27 March 1954. The following 5 August, the French and Chinese authorities agreed on a 90-year lease for the land occupied by the cemeteries in Keelung and the commemorative stele in Magong.

The site was managed by the French representative at the embassy until 1993. The general secretariat at the French Institute of Taiwan took over, with financial assistance from the Ministry of Defence. In 1997, a French ministerial decision led to an agreement to place the management and maintenance of the cemetery in the hands of the municipality of Keelung. On the Pescadores Islands, the city of Magong renovated the Mount Shetou site, adding various Dutch, Japanese and French commemorative monuments. It classified the cemetery a historical monument in 2001.

A commemorative ceremony is held each year on 11 November.

French Institute of Taipei

10F, 205 Tun Hwa N. Road Taipei 105

Tel.: (886-2)3518-5151

Fax: (886-2)3518-5193

www.fi-taipei.org

e-mail (general secretariat): iftaipei@netscape.net

The cemetery covers an area of 7.5 acres and the US was granted perpetual use of this land free of charges and taxation by the French government.

Established in 1917 by the Graves Registration Service, part of the army’s quartermaster corps, it was intended to shelter the remains of soldiers who fell during the First World War. Many of them died of their wounds or illness in the hospitals in Paris or were victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918- 1919. 

At the end of the Second World War, it was decided that this cemetery would be dedicated to victims of both world wars. Consequently, an additional plot of graves was reserved to hold the remains of 24 unknown soldiers killed during World War II.

Loggias and memorial rooms were added either side of the original chapel. The graveyard comprises four plots of burial places: three for victims of the First World War with a total of 1,541 graves, and a fourth plot where 24 soldiers, marines and pilots lie, all unknown and killed during the Second World War.

The exterior surface is limestone from Val d'Arion and the four peristyle columns are monolithic. Inside the chapel, the walls and columns are made from Rocheret limestone. The ceiling is oak panelled. Four bronze plaques bear the names of the 974 men buried or lost at sea during the First World War.

The door in the left-hand wall of the chapel leads to the First World War loggia, a covered walkway with a side opening through which visitors can see the graveyards further down and, in the distance, Paris. The walls are limestone. The door in the right-hand wall of the chapel leads to the Second World War loggia, similar to that dedicated to the First World War, with the exception of the inscriptions on the walls. The original chapel, designed by the architect Charles A. Platt from New York was completed in 1932. William and Geoffrey Platt, sons of Charles A. Platt, created the loggias and memorial rooms added to the chapel in 1952. The original cemetery was inaugurated in 1919, on Memorial Day. The inauguration of the Second World War cemetery was held on 13 September 1952.

American Battle Monuments Commission

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), founded by United States Congress in 1923, is an agency of the executive branch of the federal government. Its mission is to preserve the memory of the sacrifices and deeds of the American military forces wherever they have served since 6 April 1917, the date the United States entered the First World War.

Visits Open every day (except 25 December and 1 January) from 9 am to 5 pm.

Admission and guided tours are free of charge.

Information is available from the visitor information centre.

Getting there

By train (SNCF): From Paris Saint-Lazare or La Défense, take the train to Suresnes Mont Valérien.

By bus: take the 160, 241 or 360 (Stop: Cluseret Hôpital Foch)

By road: From Pont de Suresnes (bridge), follow the blue signs: American Military Cemetery and Memorial

Suresnes American Cemetery

123 bd Washington 92150 Suresnes - France

Tel: +33 (0)1 46 25 01 70

Fax: +33 (0)1 46 25 01 71

E-mail: suresnes@abmc.gov

American Battle Monuments Commission

68 rue du 19 janvier BP 50 92380 Garches

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 01 37 49

American Battle Monuments Commission

This 21-hectare cemetery is situated at the foot of the hill on which Belleau Wood stands. Many of those buried in the cemetery lost their lives in the wood.

The cemetery's official name, Aisne-Marne, refers to the Aisne-Marne offensive which took place between May and October 1918, mainly in the south of the Aisne department and the west of the Marne department. Of the 2,289 graves in the cemetery, 250 contain the bodies of unidentified service personnel. The servicepeople who lie here originated from the 48 American states which existed at the time and the District of Columbia. Most of them died during the second battle of the Marne.

The Chapel

The chapel was built above the trenches on the front line dug by the 2nd American Division to defend Belleau Wood after it was captured on 25 June 1918. The chapel, a fine example of French Romanesque architecture, is more than 24 metres high. The exterior steps, the walls and the terrace are built of limestone from St. Maximin, Savonnières and Massangis. The sculptures around the entrance depict trench scenes from the First World War. The names of the 1,060 personnel who lost their lives are written on the walls of the chapel.

The Memorial is the work of architects Cram and Ferguson from Boston, Massachusetts. The décor in the chapel was designed by William F. Ross and Co., East Cambridge, Massachusetts and crafted by Alfred Bottiau from Paris. In 1934, the President of the United States allocated responsibility for the management of the cemetery, which was inaugurated on Memorial day (30 May) 1937, to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

The Bois Belleau

The Bois (wood), a site covering 81 hectares bordering the cemetery behind the chapel, is a memorial dedicated to all the Americans who fought during the First World War. It features the remains of trenches, shell holes and artefacts from the war found in the surrounding area.

On an island in the road through the clearing in the middle of the wood lies a monument erected by the Marines and a flag pole. The monument is a black granite stele to which is attached a bronze bas-relief by Felix de Weldon depicting a life-sized Marine attacking with a rifle and bayonet.

This monument commemorates the 4th Brigade, 2nd Division Marines who were primarily responsible for the capture of the wood. On 30 June 1918 the wood was officially renamed "Marine Brigade Wood" by the Commander General of the 6th French Army.

American Battle Monuments Commission

This American government agency manages 24 American cemeteries and 25 commemorative monuments, war memorials and other remembrance sites in 15 countries. The Commission plays a part in achieving the vision of its first president, General of the Armies of the United States John J. Pershing. General Pershing, Commander in Chief of the American expeditionary corps during the First World War, vowed that "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds".

Visits

Open every day (except 25 December and 1 January) from 9am to 5pm.

Entrance is free and guided visits, also free, are organised on reservation. Information is available from the visitor information centre.

Access

Take exit 19 from the A4 motorway then follow the N3 to Belleau.

Aisne Marne American Cemetery

02400 Belleau - France

E-mail : aisne-marne@abmc.gov

American Battle Monuments Commission

68 rue du 19 janvier BP 50 92380 Garches

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 01 37 46

American Battle Monuments Commission

This 28-acre cemetery was established on a temporary cemetery set up just after the region was liberated by the 8^th Infantry Division (US) on 2 August 1944.

After the war, when the temporary cemeteries were closed down by the American identification and interment services, the remains of American soldiers killed at war and whose families had request a burial abroad, were transferred from the temporary cemeteries to 14 permanent cemeteries.

The French government granted perpetual use of the land free of charges and taxes to the American government, in recognition of the sacrifices made to liberate Europe. The majority of the soldiers buried here were killed during the liberation of Brittany, the fall of A ranches and the violent battles around Saint Lô and Mortain.

The cemetery holds the remains of 4,410 soldiers. They account for 43% of burials made in the region.

The graves are divided into 16 plots, set out in concentric rows spreading out from the central lawn. These dead soldiers, who laid down their lives for their homeland, came from every State of the Union, the District of Colombia, Hawaii, Alaska and also Canada. Some 95 steles bear the inscription “Unknown Soldier” and shelter the remains of soldiers who could not be identified. Two of these graves contain the bodies of two soldiers who could not be separately identified. In 20 cases, two brothers lie side by side, and two others are buried in neighbouring plots.

The chapel, made from La Pirye granite from the Hanglé region in Brittany, comprises a vestibule, tower, memorial room and chapel. At its east end stands a sculpture representing “Youth Triumphing over Evil” made in Chauvigny limestone.

The Wall of the Missing, slightly curved, supports the terrace and bears the names, grades, units and home states of 498 unknown soldiers. They gave their life for their homeland yet there bodies were never found or formally identified. A bronze rosette marks those whose bodies were found.

The architect of the cemetery and memorial was William T. Aldrich from Boston, Massachusetts. Shurcliff & Shurcliff, also from Boston, landscaped the grounds. Lee Lawrie, from Easton, Maryland, designed the sculpture group “Youth Triumphing Over Evil” and the sculpture above the chapel’s entrance.

The cemetery’s inauguration ceremony took place after its completion on 20 July 1956.

American Battle Monuments Commission

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), founded by United States Congress in 1923, is an agency of the executive branch of the federal government. Its mission is to preserve the memory of the sacrifices and deeds of the American military forces wherever they have served since 6 April 1917, the date the United States entered the First World War.

Brittany American Cemetery

50240 Saint-James - France

Tel: +33 (0)2 33 89 24 90

Fax: +33 (0)2 33 89 24 91

E-mail: brittany@abmc.gov

Tours

Open from 9 am to 5 pm. Admission and guided tours are free of charge. Information is available from the visitor information centre.

Closed on 25 December and 1 January.

Getting there

South of Avranches via the A84, one mile from the village of Saint James.

American Battle Monuments Commission

68 rue du 19 janvier BP 50 92380 Garches

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 01 37

American Battle Monuments Commission

This 52-heactare (130-acre) cemetery was established on 14 October, 1918, by the US Army on land taken by the 32^nd Infantry Division. This land was ceded to the United States in perpetuity by the French Government to establish a permanent, tax-free burial site.

This cemetery contains the remains of 14,246 soldiers, most of whom fell during the US First Army’s operations of 26 September to 11 November, 1918. In 1922, the bodies buried in temporary cemeteries around the region, but also in the Vosges and in Occupied Germany, were brought here to their final resting place. Many of those who died at Arkhangelsk, Russia, were also buried in this cemetery. Among the tombs, 486 hold the remains of unidentified soldiers.

The Memorial, a typical example of Romanesque architecture, faces north at the top of a hill that slopes down to the tombs. It comprises a chapel flanked by two loggias, inside which is the Wall of the Missing. The outside walls and the columns are in Euville Coquillier stone, while the interior walls are in Salamandre Travertine.

The names of the 954 missing soldiers who gave their lives for their country and whose bodies were never found or identified are engraved on the Wall of the Missing. This necropolis was built by the architects York and Sawyer of New York. The infrastructures, as we can see them today, were completed in 1932. The cemetery was inaugurated on Memorial Day, 1937, for the twentieth anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War One.

This monument rises nearly 60 metres above the ruins of the former village of Montfaucon, built at the top of a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside. Before it was taken by the US 37^th and 79^th Divisions on 27 September, 1918, this site provided the German troops with a remarkable observation point.

The monument commemorates the victory of the US First Army in the Meuse - Argonne offensive of 26 September to 11 November, 1918, and honours the heroism of the French Army on the front before this period.

American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)

This US government agency operates 24 American cemeteries and 25 commemorative monuments, war monuments and other memorials in 15 countries. The Commission works to fulfil the vision of its first chairman, General of the Armies John J. Pershing. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, promised that “time will not dim the glory of their deeds”.

Meuse - Argonne American Cemetery

55110 Romagne sous Montfaucon - France

Tel.: 03 29 85 14 18

Fax: 03 29 58 13 96

e-mail: meuse-argonne@abmc.gov

American Battle Monuments Commission

68 rue du 19 Janvier BP 50 92380 Garches

Tel.: 01 47 01 37

American Battle Monuments Commission

Arras and the First World War (1914-18)

Arras was at the centre of battle throughout the First World War. After falling into German hands in 1914 and then taken back by the French, it was defended by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from spring 1916. Almost razed to the ground, the town had become an underground city organised into a maze of galleries several kilometres long (known as boves) that were used during the great offensive of 1917. At the start of April, at dawn, some 20,000 British soldiers emerged in the surrounding German trenches to the complete surprise of the enemy, managing to seize officers as they were having breakfast.

For the Commonwealth forces, this was an absolute massacre: 159,000 men lost in 39 days, or the equivalent of 4,076 deaths every day. While notching up the biggest death toll, this offensive was nevertheless a significant military victory, perhaps the only one achieved by the Allies in 1917. In 1918, the Germans attempted, in vein, to recapture Arras.

Within the walls of the cemetery, all men are equal. The memorials were created in this spirit, with soldiers and officers lying side by side. The Cross of Sacrifice symbolises the faith of the majority (Christian) whole the Steele Memorial was built in honour of the men of other faiths and atheists.

Used from March 1916 by the British forces, the cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice by the graves repatriated from the battlefield and two small cemeteries nearby. It is the site of 2,651 burial places of Commonwealth soldiers who fought in World War I. A further 30 graves hold men of other nationalities, mainly German. Seven graves date back to the Second World War, when Arras served as the headquarters of British troops until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940. In German hands at the time, it was taken back by the Allies on 1 September 1944.

For those with no known grave

The cemetery features a memorial that pays tribute to the more than 35,000 missing soldiers whose bodies were never found. These men fought in terrible conditions, against the deadliest weapons of war the world had ever known. Sent from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, they fell in the Arras region between spring 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the March to Victory. The Canadian and Australian soldiers killed during this period are commemorated by the memorials in Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A specific memorial honours the men who fell during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

The Flying Services Memorial bears the names of around 1,000 men from the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force (following the merger of the RNAS and the RFC in April 1918) who were shot down on the Western Front and have no known graves. For the pilots involved in the Battle of Arras, April 1917 was dubbed Bloody April and life expectancy fell to three weeks at 5.30 p.m. Fiercely efficient, the German airforce decimated the RFC forces by a third in just one month.

Faubourg d'Amiens Military Cemetery

Boulevard du général de Gaulle 62000, Arras

Office de tourisme d'Arras