Etaples Militiary Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth war grave site in France and is located on the road north from Etaples towards Boulogne-sur-Mer on France’s north west coast.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it features over 11,500 burials with 10,792 soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and India, along with 658 German servicemen.
Etaples holds mainly the dead from the First World War – over 10,771 – as this area was at the centre of Allied operations – far enough away from the front lines to avoid attack from land forces, but well connected via the railway network to the battlefields.
The town served as camps and barracks for soldiers, and also hosted 16 hospitals for treating the injured from the trenches. The first casualties were interred here in May 1915.
In 1940, Etaples once again became a hospital location, albeit briefly from January until the German occupation of France. This is the reason for so few – just 119 – burials from the Second World War.
This Commonwealth War Graves Commission site is immaculately kept.