GIVENCHY-LÈS-LA-BASSÉE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Pas De Calais
France
Location Information
Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée is a village some 27 kilometres north of Arras and about 5 kilometres west of La Bassée, a small town on the N41 road from Bethune to Lille. From the church in the centre of the village head north, after 300 metres turn right in front of the Lancashire Division Memorial. The cemetery is a further 100 metres on the right. The Commonwealth burials are on the left.
Historical Information
It was at Givenchy during the 1914-1918 War that the 55th West Lancashire Division made its famous stand, maintaining its position intact when assailed by no less than three German divisions. This was the only sector of the whole Allied front held inviolate during the great German offensive of 1918, and the stand made by the 55th Division on April 9th-16th, 1918 was afterwards acknowledged by the German General Staff to have marked the ruination of the supreme German effort.
Devastated in the course of the First World War Givenchy was severely damaged during the 1939-1945 War when heavy fighting covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. The Memorial Hall (given in 1924 by the City of Liverpool for orphans and aged inhabitants), the Mairie and the Schools were completely destroyed.
The cemetery is near the 30ft. high granite cross standing in a small park which forms the 1914-1918 War Memorial of the 55th West Lancashire Division.
There are 33, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 13 are unidentitied.
Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée is a village some 27 kilometres north of Arras and about 5 kilometres west of La Bassée, a small town on the N41 road from Bethune to Lille. From the church in the centre of the village head north, after 300 metres turn right in front of the Lancashire Division Memorial. The cemetery is a further 100 metres on the right. The Commonwealth burials are on the left.
Historical Information
It was at Givenchy during the 1914-1918 War that the 55th West Lancashire Division made its famous stand, maintaining its position intact when assailed by no less than three German divisions. This was the only sector of the whole Allied front held inviolate during the great German offensive of 1918, and the stand made by the 55th Division on April 9th-16th, 1918 was afterwards acknowledged by the German General Staff to have marked the ruination of the supreme German effort.
Devastated in the course of the First World War Givenchy was severely damaged during the 1939-1945 War when heavy fighting covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. The Memorial Hall (given in 1924 by the City of Liverpool for orphans and aged inhabitants), the Mairie and the Schools were completely destroyed.
The cemetery is near the 30ft. high granite cross standing in a small park which forms the 1914-1918 War Memorial of the 55th West Lancashire Division.
There are 33, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 13 are unidentitied.
