Maps showing CWGC Cemeteries

[Rich Payne]

This is perhaps a silly question but are there any general maps available showing the location of all CWGC cemeteries (or better still, graves) in a given country ?

It just bothers me slightly that I could be passing within 100 yards of an interesting location and not be aware of its existence.

Searching by place name is OK within limits in an area one knows but a list of, for instance, every cemetery in France wouldn't help me much as I simply don't recognise many of the place names.

Cheers,

Rich

[CROONAERT]

The Michelin Road atlas with CWGC overlay available from the CWGC (link below) covers many in N. France, Rich. I don't think that they do other countries. However, "Am Rande der Strassen" from the VdK shows (but doesn't name) the location of CWGC and French (and other nations) cemeteries too.

:: CWGC ::

Dave

[Rich Payne]

Thanks for that Dave. I should have thought about looking there. I suppose that the concentrations are principally WW1 ? Is it a useful enough book to warrant buying anyway ?

My thoughts were prompted by seeing reference to a cemetery in Marseilles. I'm not going there but it made me wonder how often I may have driven through a French town and not seen one of the CWGC signs.

How would you find this one by chance ? It's not easy to find on the CWGC site.

It has 1487 WW1 and 267 WW2 casualties

CWGC :: Cemetery Details

Rich

[Harry Ree]

The Michelin Atlas Routier generally shows the main CWGC cemeteries and those of other nationalities but missing are those burials in French Communal Cemeteries, those obsure burials in villages and hamlets.

However there is a very good reference from the unofficial web site www.purecollector.com/historycwgc/France.html which covers the main cemeteries and the communal cemeteries.Recently in the Seine Maritime,I found four burials in a French churchyard which, on account of the date,placed their deaths at the time at the retreat westward of the BEF from Dunkirk.On returning home.I checked the site and the casualty information was confirmed.

The other good reference can be obtained from the IGN 1-25.000 maps for a given area which indicate military cemeteries in addition to providing excellent local area information for the holidaymaker.

While travelling,it is still best to keep a look out for the CWGC "green plaques".Long before the advent of the internet, I was passing through a hamlet, south west of Riems when I came across "green plaque" cemetery which contained one RAF casualty, whose well kept grave had been enhanced by kerbing. I was later able to ascertain that the grave was that of No 617 Squadron Bill Reid's Flight Engineer.Bill Reid went into the bag when his Lancaster was hit by bomb from another Lancaster whilst on his bombing run raiding railway tunnels in which VI rockets were stored.

[turenne]

An excellent website recommended by Harry. I had started to build my own list of "missing" cemeteries, so this is of great value.

[Rich Payne]

Harry, thanks for the site link. It has thrown up quite a few locations close to me here in Eastern Belgium. It seems a shame that they are almost forgotten compared with the large cemeteries.

I haven't dared to look at France yet but with my particular interest in the BEF withdrawal, the smaller locations are often the ones that are most evocative.

Now all I have to do is get the old chinagraph pencil and a decent map out.

[Len Trim]

If you do a search on the Great War Forum you will find threads to do with both maps and gps positions of cemeteries. I know of people who have loaded programs into their Sat Nav set ups and been given directions straight to CWGC, some of them very obscure.

Len