CWGC Cemetery: GIAVERA BRITISH CEMETERY, ARCADE

---

Local Information

The town of Giavera is in the Province of Treviso. It is 12 kilometres east of Montebelluna and 14 kilometres west of Conegliano on the main road between the two places. Giavera British Cemetery is 500 metres north-west of the town close to the church.

Historical Information

The Italians entered the war on the Allied side, declaring war on Austria, in May 1915. Commonwealth forces were at the Italian front between November 1917 and November 1918. On 4 December 1917, the X1th and XIVth Corps relieved the Italians on the Montello sector of the Piave front, with the French on their left. The Montello sector acted as a hinge to the whole Italian line, joining that portion facing north from Mount Tomba to Lake Garda with the defensive line of the River Piave covering Venice, which was held by the Third Italian Army. The Commonwealth troops on the sector were not involved in any large operations, but they carried out continuous patrol work across the River Piave, as well as much successful counter battery work. In January 1918, an additional sector of the defence on the right was taken over by the Commonwealth troops. Between December and March the Royal Flying Corps carried out a large number of successful raids on enemy aerodromes, railway junctions, and other objectives. In March 1918, the Commonwealth troops on the Montello sector were relieved. Three Divisions (7th, 48th and 23rd) took over the Asiago sector in the mountains north of Vicenza, and two Divisions (5th and 41st) were despatched to France. In October, the 7th and 23rd Divisions were withdrawn from the Asiago Plateau to take over the northern portion of the X1th Italian Corps front from Salletuol to Palazzon, on the River Piave. These Divisions took a prominent part in the Passage of the Piave (23 October-4 November 1918) during the final Battle of Vittorio-Veneto. On 4 November the Armistice came into effect, and active hostilities ceased. Men who died in defending the Piave from December 1917, to March, 1918, and those who fell on the west of the river during the Passage of the Piave, are buried in this cemetery. GIAVERA BRITISH CEMETERY contains 417 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. Within the cemetery stands the GIAVERA MEMORIAL, which commemorates more than 150 members of the Commonwealth forces who died in Italy in 1917 and 1918 and whose places of burial are unknown.