Among the soldiers buried here is a soldier who died for France in 1939-1945.

Next to this cemetery is a German cemetery created in 1920, containing the remains of 1,095 German soldiers, 388 of them in two ossuaries. Buried with these soldiers are four British soldiers, two of them officers from the Royal Air Force (RAF), and two French soldiers.

A German cemetery next to this site, created at the same time as the French military cemetery, contains 5,333 bodies, 3,802 of them in individual graves.

Also, 428 French soldiers and one Soviet soldier who lost their lives in the Second World War are buried here. The site lies next to a German cemetery containing the bodies of 2,332 soldiers, 911 of whom are buried in a collective grave.

A commemorative monument in the form of an obelisk stands in the French section, bearing the inscription Dulce Et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori (It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country).

At the beginning of 1916, there were riots in towns in the north caused by shortages in supplies. In April, the German authorities responded by sending workers to neighbouring areas. Faced with international criticism, this deportation was soon stopped. Some of the workers, including Arthur Jaspart, lost their lives. He was a worker from Valenciennes who died, aged 21, on 9 July 1918 in the isolation ward at the German military railways workshop in Guise. He is buried in Guise cemetery (Grave No.1236).

From 1949 to 1953, WWII victims were also buried in the cemetery. Maucourt National Cemetery preserves the memory of 24 French and six Commonwealth pilots (five British and one Canadian).

These Royal Air Force men were crew members of the Halifax B - MK.II - s/n HR784 HD. After bombing the Skoda armaments factory in Pilsen (Czechoslovakia), the aircraft was shot down on 17 April 1943, crashing in Maucourt. Of the seven crew members, only one managed to jump out with his parachute and was captured by the Germans.

The American poet Alan Seeger died during this assault. After growing up in Mexico, the former Harvard student moved to Paris where mobilisation took him by surprise. Sensitive and romantic, he  enlisted alongside fifty other American volunteers in the Foreign Legion. On 4 July 1916, the day of the US national holiday, the poet died after singing popular French songs throughout the night. Today, in all likelihood, his remains lie in the ossuary with many other volunteers who joined the Foreign Legion. The young writer’s grave was destroyed by subsequent bombings. He is the author of the poem “I have a rendezvous with death”, which he wrote on 1 July 1916. His body could not be identified with certainty. In 2006, a monument commemorating the writer and soldier was erected. It is a symbol of the military engagement of young people and Americans.

There is an imposing monument where Prince Louis Murat lies on the northeast edge of the village of Lihons. He was the great-great-nephew of Napoleon I and grandson of the Empire Marshall Joachim Murat. This young man of 19, a volunteer, was killed by the enemy on 21 August 1916. The imperial eagle atop the monument is now kept in Lihons town hall.

Furthermore, the Somme’s largest German cemetery, containing the bodies of 22,665 German soldiers, is located in Vermandovillers, and includes the grave of four pilots from Baron Manfred von Richthofen’s squadron.

Among the 955 soldiers buried here lies the body of Abbé (or Father) Thibaut. Chaplain of the 1st infantry regiment, he was one of the 150 chaplains who died between 1914 and 1918. Seriously wounded during the attack on Frégicourt on 26 September 1916, he died the following day at Etinehem's temporary hospital. The bodies of 49 British soldiers also lie within this remembrance site.

Numerous soldiers from the Commonwealth lie in two British cemeteries nearby. The Ovillers-La-Boisselle crater, 7 km north-east of Albert, remains one of the most impressive remnants of the battle of the mines in the Somme.

 Following the old First World War front line, the Musée Territoire 14-18 sheds light on a great many aspects of a conflict that left a lasting impression on the local landscape and population.

Here you can visit a number of museums (Musée de la Batellerie, Musée du Noyonnais); an interpretation centre (Espace Découverte in Rethondes), which will prepare you for your visit to the battleground by using modern technology to present the main stages of the conflict in the area; several quarries (Confrécourt, Montigny); a large number of cemeteries, monuments and remains (various French cemeteries; two German cemeteries, including the biggest in the Oise; a number of bunkers, including that of the Crown Prince of Bavaria, at Nampcel; the ruins of Plessier-de-Roye and Ourscamp abbey); follow our hiking trails, and immerse yourself in the everyday lives of civilians and soldiers a hundred years ago.

 In late August 1914, the German 1st Army invaded the Oise and the Soisson area. It passed Compiègne and Senlis, then went on down the eastern side of Paris to participate in surrounding the French troops. But the French, aided by the British, halted the invaders at the Battle of the Marne (5 to 10 September 1914). The Germans then retreated, stopping on the right bank of the Aisne. From 14 to 20 September 1914, the very violent fighting that took place across the Noyon and Soisson areas brought little change. While the belligerents tried to break the deadlock by attempting to outflank each other to the northwest of Noyon (the start of the ‘Race to the Sea’), the front became established in the area for 30 months, along a line that passed through Roye, Lassigny, Ribécourt, Autrêches and Soissons. The inhabitants of the towns and villages near the front line were evacuated, while the Germans occupied Noyon and the northeast of the department of the Oise. Following the German retreat over the Hindenburg Line in March 1917, the Oise was liberated a first time. But although life tended to return to normal with the return of the civilians, the German offensives of spring 1918 prolonged the fighting in the area until the end of August 1918. The various battles waged during this period transformed towns and villages, which up until then had been spared, into “flattened country”.

The clearing in Rethondes nevertheless became the symbol of peace regained, with the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918.

Sources : ©Musée Territoire 14-18