LE CATEAU MILITARY CEMETERY

UK - 639
SA - 28
AUST - 6
CANADA - 2
NZ - 2
NEWFOUNDLAND - 1
GUERNSEY - 1
UNIDENTIFIED - 188

HISTORY

Le Cateau is a small town in the Department of the Nord, with a railway station on the main line from Paris to Brussels. It, and the country West of it, were the scene of the battle fought by the II Corps (Smith-Dorrien) on the 26th August 1914, against a greatly superior German force; and a monument has been erected half a mile South-West of the town, near the road to Reumont, to commemorate the engagement. From that date until the evening of the 10th October 1918, when the 5th Connaught Rangers rushed the town, it remained in German hands; and it was not cleared until a week later. It had been a German railhead and an important hospital centre. Le Cateau Military Cemetery is a little West of the town, near the crossing of the straight road to Caudry and the side road from Montay to Reumont. It was laid out by the Germans in February 1916, with separate plots for the British and German dead. It contains the graves of over 5,000 German soldiers, some of whom were buried during the enemy occupation and some concentrated from other German Cemeteries after the war. Some 34 Russian prisoners of war who died in German hands are buried in a separate plot. The British Plots are mainly along the North-East wall. They contain the graves of 639 soldiers (and sailors and airmen) from the United Kingdom, 28 from South Africa, six from Australia, two from Canada, two from New Zealand, one from Newfoundland and one from Guernsey. The unnamed graves number 188, but special memorials are erected to 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. The majority of the graves in Plots I, II, IV and V are those of British dead buried by the Germans, mainly from the battleground of 1914; Plot II contains entirely graves of October and November 1918, eight of which were brought in after the Armistice. The town lies in a narrow valley, but the cemetery stands on higher ground commanding extensive views. 

LOCATION

 Le Cateau is a small town approximately 27 kilometres east-south-east of Cambrai. From Cambrai, take the N43 to its junction with D932, approximately 22.5 kilometres from Cambrai centre. Turn left at the junction and the cemetery lies on the right side, 400 metres along this road.