First DCLI Cemetery, The Bluff | |
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Commonwealth War Graves Commission | |
Used for those deceased 1915 | |
Established | 1915 |
Location | 50°49′14″N02°54′47″E / 50.82056°N 2.91306°E near |
Designed by | J R Truelove |
Total burials | 76 |
Burials by nation | |
Burials by war | |
World War I: 76 | |
Official name | Funerary and memory sites of the First World War (Western Front) |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | i, ii, vi |
Designated | 2023 (45th session) |
Reference no. | 1567-FL21 |
Statistics source: WO1.be |
First DCLI Cemetery, The Bluff is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near The Bluff south of Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front. It takes its name from the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI).
The area where the cemetery stands, known by soldiers as "The Bluff", is an artificial ridge in the landscape created by spoil from failed attempts to dig a canal. [1] With the additional height in an otherwise relatively flat landscape, The Bluff was an important military objective. [2] German forces took The Bluff in February 1916, and it was recaptured by the 14th (Light) Division on 2 March. [3] In July 1916, the Germans detonated a mine under the ridge, but did not capture it. [4] The Germans took The Bluff during the Spring Offensive of 1918, and it finally returned to Allied hands on 28 September after a push by the 14th (Light) Division. [3] The area is now a provincial nature reserve and picnic area called "Provinciaal Domein Palingbeek". [5]
The cemetery here was founded by the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) before the fighting of 1916. [3] At the time of the armistice it contained burials only from the DCLI but the cemetery was expanded by concentration of graves from the former battlefields. [6]
The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove. [3] The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war. [7]
Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.
The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1959.
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PerthCemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front.
Woods Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near The Bluff south of Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front.
Hedge Row Trench Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near The Bluff south of Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front.
Zillebeke Churchyard Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery forms part of the village churchyard located around the Catholic parish church of Zillebeke in Belgium.
The St Symphorien Military Cemetery is a First World War Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground in Saint-Symphorien, Belgium. It contains the graves of 284 German and 229 Commonwealth soldiers, principally those killed during the Battle of Mons. The cemetery was established by the German Army on land donated by Jean Houzeau de Lehaie. It was initially designed as a woodland cemetery before being redesigned by William Harrison Cowlishaw after the Imperial War Graves Commission took over maintenance of the cemetery after the war.
Major General David Noel Hugh Tyacke CB OBE was a senior British Army officer. His last post was as General Officer Commanding the Singapore District and he had previously been the last commanding officer of 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) prior to amalgamation into the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry.
Essex Farm Cemetery is a World War I, Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground within the John McCrae Memorial Site near Ypres, Belgium. There are 1,204 dead commemorated, of which 104 are unidentified. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and has an area of 6,032 square metres (64,930 sq ft).
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The Actions of the Bluff were local operations in 1916 carried out in Flanders during the First World War by the German 4th Army and the British Second Army. The Bluff is a mound near St Eloi, south-east of Ypres in Belgium, created from a spoil heap made during the digging of the Ypres–Comines Canal before the war. From 14 to 15 February and on 2 March 1916, the Germans and the British fought for control of the Bluff, the Germans capturing the mound and defeating counter-attacks only for the British to recapture it and a stretch of the German front line, after pausing to prepare a set-piece attack.