The "Wicres Village" German Military Cemetery is one of two WWI military cemeteries in the commune of Wicres, located to the south of the village, not far from the church and the communal cemetery. The second is the German military cemetery on the Route de La Bassée.
In this vast, rectangular cemetery covering more than 3 hectares, 2,824 German soldiers lie in individual graves, 128 of them unidentified.
Occupied by German troops from the end of August 1914, the village of Wicres remained in the combat zone until October 1918, when it was definitively retaken by British troops. This cemetery was created in September 1915 to bury the soldiers who fell in the fighting of the Third Battle of Artois in September 1915 between La Bassée and Arras. A memorial commemorates September 25, 1915: on that day, the regiment lost 210 men in a mine explosion. More than 900 people were buried here in the second half of 1915, and almost 1,000 in 1918 during the German attack in May and the Allied counter-offensives in September-October 1918.
During the inter-war period, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge carried out initial work on the enclosure and planted trees. Following the conclusion of the Franco-German war graves agreement on July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge - financially supported by the Federal Government - developed the final cemetery plan. In addition to a fundamental overhaul of the landscape gardens in 1979, the old wooden crosses were replaced by natural stone crosses, engraved with the names and dates of those who lie here.
In this vast, rectangular cemetery covering more than 3 hectares, 2,824 German soldiers lie in individual graves, 128 of them unidentified.
Occupied by German troops from the end of August 1914, the village of Wicres remained in the combat zone until October 1918, when it was definitively retaken by British troops. This cemetery was created in September 1915 to bury the soldiers who fell in the fighting of the Third Battle of Artois in September 1915 between La Bassée and Arras. A memorial commemorates September 25, 1915: on that day, the regiment lost 210 men in a mine explosion. More than 900 people were buried here in the second half of 1915, and almost 1,000 in 1918 during the German attack in May and the Allied counter-offensives in September-October 1918.
During the inter-war period, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge carried out initial work on the enclosure and planted trees. Following the conclusion of the Franco-German war graves agreement on July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge - financially supported by the Federal Government - developed the final cemetery plan. In addition to a fundamental overhaul of the landscape gardens in 1979, the old wooden crosses were replaced by natural stone crosses, engraved with the names and dates of those who lie here.
