Historical Information (Source: Volksbund)

22,216 war dead rest on this war cemetery.

The battles on the Somme cost hundreds of thousands of lives during the First World War. Numerous cemeteries of the participating nations remind of this to this day. But also

During the Second World War, in June 1940, the summer area was again the scene of fierce fighting, but this time in the lower reaches and in the coastal area. The German troops, especially the armored units, advanced rapidly towards the English Channel coast, which they reached on May 20, 1940. Boulogne falls on May 25th, Calais on May 26th, 1940; Lille will be captured on May 29th.

About 400,000 French and English soldiers are encircled. Churchill decides to evacuate the British expeditionary army via Dunkirk. Despite the German air and tank attacks, around 300,000 British, French and several thousand Belgian soldiers were successfully evacuated by sea. The German soldiers who fell during these fighting and two retreat fights at the end of August / beginning of September 1944 in the North, Pas-de-Calais and Somme departments or who later died in captivity rest on this War cemetery.