|
|
|
Delsaux Farm was a point on the German defensive system known as the
Beugny-Ytres line, which was reached by Commonwealth troops on 18 March
1917, and passed on the following day. The farm was lost on 23 March 1918
after the gallant defence of Beugny by the 9th Welsh Regiment and their
withdrawal, but it was retaken by the 5th Division on 2 September 1918,
and on the next day the same division occupied Beugny village. After their
advance in March 1918, the Germans made a cemetery (Beugny Military
Cemetery No. 18) at the cross-roads, and in it buried 103 Commonwealth and
82 German dead. The site was extended in October - November 1918 by the
29th and 46th Casualty Clearing Stations, which came to Delsaux Farm and
made the present cemetery. A little later, the German graves of March 1918
were removed and the 103 Commonwealth dead reburied in Plot I, Row J, Plot
II, Row A, and Plot III, Rows B, C and D. The rest of the cemetery was
made when graves were later brought in from the battlefield. Delsaux Farm
Cemetery contains 495 burials and commemorations of the First World War.
61 of the burials are unidentified and 32 others, identified as a whole
but not individually, are marked with headstones inscribed "Buried near
this spot". The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Casualty information reproduced by kind permission of the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
|