CWGC Cemetery: CROISILLES BRITISH CEMETERY

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access to site possible, but may be by and alternative entrance. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.

Local Information

Croisilles is a village about 13 kilometres south-east of Arras. Croisilles British Cemetery is 300 metres along Rue Eugene Hornez, to the south west of the village centre, off the road to St. Leger (D9).

Historical Information

The 7th Division attacked Croisilles in March 1917 and took it on 2 April. It was lost on 21 March 1918 and recaptured by the 56th (London) Division on the following 28 August, after heavy fighting. Plots I and II of the cemetery, were made between April 1917 and March 1918 and the rest was formed after the Armistice, when graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields and from some smaller burial grounds. The majority of the soldiers buried in the cemetery belonged to the Guards, 7th and 21st Divisions. Croisilles British Cemetery now contains 1,171 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 647 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 casualties buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate casualties buried in Hendecourt-les-Cagnicourt Communal Cemetery in 1917, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery also contains the graves of six Commonwealth airmen of the Second World War and 18 German war graves.