LES MOUTIERS-EN-RETZ COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Loire-Atlantique
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 47.06493, Longitude: -1.99661
Picture © Christine Da Costa
Location Information
Les Moutiers-en-Retz is a seaside village 10 kilometres south-east of Pornic, a small town and fishing port about 51 kilometres by road west-south-west of Nantes. The Communal Cemetery lies on the eastern side of the village. Against the southern wall of the cemetery are buried 62 servicemen belonging to the forces of the United Kingdom.
Visiting Information
Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible via main entrance.
History Information
All save the sailor lost their lives when the troopship Lancastria was bombed and sunk off St. Nazaire, 29 kilometres north of Les Moutiers, on 17th June, 1940. There are now 62, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 16 are unidentified. Lack of space prevented the erection of individual headstones, and all the men are commemorated by a memorial in the form of a screen wall, with a number of Portland stone panels upon which the names are carved. Between these panels are others bearing the badges of the various regiments, and across the memorial, above the names, runs the inscription "In honoured memory of these British soldiers who perished in the loss of the troopship Lancastria on June 17th, 1940, and who are buried here".
Total Burials: 62.
Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 46.
Unidentified Casualties: 16.
