Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial

Last updated
Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Zonnebeke - Buttes New British Cemetery 2.jpg
Buttes New British Cemetery, with the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in the background
For New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Location 50°51′20″N02°59′29″E / 50.85556°N 2.99139°E / 50.85556; 2.99139 Coordinates: 50°51′20″N02°59′29″E / 50.85556°N 2.99139°E / 50.85556; 2.99139
Zonnebeke, Belgium
Designed by Charles Holden
Here are recorded the names of officers and men of New Zealand who fell in the Polygon Wood sector September 1917 to May 1918 and whose graves are known only to God.
Statistics source: Cemetery details. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial is a World War I memorial, located in Buttes New British Cemetery, near the town of Zonnebeke, Belgium. It commemorates 378 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who were killed in the vicinity and have no known grave.

Contents

History

The Polygon Wood Sector was part of the Ypres Salient and the scene of heavy fighting for most of the war. It was originally held by the Allied forces but lost to the Germans in 1915. It was recaptured in September 1917 by the Australian 5th Division. [1] After the First Battle of Passchendaele (12 October), soldiers of the New Zealand Division wintered in the area until February 1918, when they were sent to a rest area, before being transferred to the Somme during the German spring offensive. [2] Consequently, many of those killed in action or who died of their wounds during this period were buried in the vicinity. After the war, over 2,000 of the Allied soldiers buried around Polygon Wood in wartime graves were re-interred in Buttes New British Cemetery, located in the north-eastern corner of Polygon Wood. [3]

The Memorial

The New Zealand Memorial to the Missing, designed by the English architect Charles Holden, lists 378 officers and men of the New Zealand Division with no known grave who were killed between September 1917 and May 1918 while serving in the Polygon Wood Sector or in the Battle of Polygon Wood. [3] Most of those commemorated were from the Otago Regiment. [4]

It is one of seven such memorials on the Western Front to the missing dead from New Zealand. There are three in Belgium: Buttes plus Messines Ridge British Cemetery and Tyne Cot and four in France: Caterpillar Valley Cemetery (in Longueval), Grévillers, Cité Bonjean (near Armentières) and Marfaux. [3]

Other memorials and cemeteries in the area, related to the Battle of Polygon Wood, are a memorial to the Australian 5th Division and the Polygon Wood Cemetery. [5]

Notes

  1. Gray, 2010, pp. 170–171
  2. McGibbon, 2001, p. 3
  3. 1 2 3 Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 September 2014
  4. Reed, Paul. "Polygon Wood". Old Front Line Battlefields of WW1. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  5. Polygon Wood Cemetery. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 September 2014

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth War Graves Commission</span> Commonwealth organisation responsible for war graves

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyne Cot</span> WWI CWGC cemetery near Passendale, Belgium

Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. The cemetery and its surrounding memorial are located outside Passendale, near Zonnebeke in Belgium.

Polygon Wood is a forest located between Ypres and Zonnebeke, West Flanders, Belgium. It was the scene for several battles during the First World War and there are at least two cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the immediate vicinity of the wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fromelles</span> Commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Fromelles is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. As of 2019 it had a population of 1,041; its inhabitants are called Fromellois. It is located about 16 kilometres (10 mi) to the west of Lille.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duhallow ADS Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC site in Ypres, Belgium

Duhallow ADSCemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near Ypres on the Western Front in Belgium.

Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery containing the remains of Allied troops who died during the Gallipoli campaign. It is located about one kilometre (0.62 mi) south-west of Krithia on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooge Crater Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Ypres, Belgium

Hooge Crater Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. Hooge Crater Cemetery is named after a mine crater blown nearby in 1915 and located near the centre of Hooge, opposite the "Hooge Crater Museum" and separated from it by the Menin Road. Hooge itself is a small village on the Bellewaerde Ridge, about 4 kilometres east of Ypres in the Flemish province of West Flanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hill 60 Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery</span> CWGC cemetery in Gallipoli, Turkey

Hill 60 Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery dating from World War I at the Northern end of the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey and the location of Hill 60 Memorial, one of four memorials on the peninsula which commemorate New Zealanders killed in the campaign but who have no known grave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lone Pine Cemetery</span> From Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Lone Pine Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery dating from World War I in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey and the location of the Lone Pine Memorial, one of five memorials on the peninsula which commemorate servicemen of the former British Empire killed in the campaign but who have no known grave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial</span> WW1 memorial in Belgium

The Messines Ridge Memorial is a World War I memorial, located in Messines Ridge British Cemetery, near the town of Mesen, Belgium. The memorial lists 827 officers and men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force with no known grave who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918. This period included the Battle of Messines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttes New British Cemetery</span>

Buttes New British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery</span>

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. After Tyne Cot, it is the second largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in Belgium. Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is located near Poperinge in the province of West Flanders. Most of those buried in the cemetery are war casualties who had been wounded near Ypres and later died in the four large Allied casualty clearing stations located in this area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polygon Wood Cemetery</span>

Polygon Wood Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War. It is located in Belgium, in what was the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooge in World War I</span>

In World War I, the area around Hooge on Bellewaerde Ridge, about 2.5 mi (4 km) east of Ypres in Flanders in Belgium, was one of the easternmost sectors of the Ypres Salient and was the site of much fighting between German and Allied forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caterpillar Valley Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Somme, France

Caterpillar Valley Cemetery is a World War I Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Longueval, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messines Ridge British Cemetery</span> Military cemetery in Belgium

Messines Ridge British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front.

References