BOURLON WOOD CEMETERY
Bourlon
Pas de Calais
France
General Directions: Bourlon is a village approximately 6 kilometres west of Cambrai. It lies between the main Cambrai to Bapaume road (N30) and the Cambrai to Arras road (D939). The cemetery is signposted from the centre of the village as is the Canadian Forces Memorial. On approaching the Memorial the road should be followed to the left where an unsurfaced track descends about 200 metres to the cemetery.
On its South-East side, stretching nearly to Fontaine-Notre Dame, is Bourlon Wood, and the village and the wood were the scene of desperate fighting in the Battle of Cambrai 1917; the 40th Division, which with the Guards and the 62nd Division bore the brunt of this fighting, has placed a memorial altar in Bourlon Church. At the end of the Battle the British troops were withdrawn from Bourlon, and the wood and the village were ultimately retaken by the 3rd Canadian and 4th Canadian Divisions on the 27th September 1918. The village was later "adopted" by the Borough of Hove. Bourlon Wood Cemetery was made by the Canadian Corps Burial Officer in October 1918. Three Chinese labourers were buried in it in 1919, and later five graves from the battlefields were brought into Plot II, Row F.
Casualty Details: UK 19, Canada 226, Total Burials: 245
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