Authuille Military Cemetery
Authuille was held by British troops from the summer of 1915 to March, 1918, when it was captured in the German Offensive on the Somme; it was ruined by shell fire even before that date.
The Military Cemetery was used by Field Ambulances and fighting units from August, 1915 to December, 1916, and in 1917 and 1918 by Indian Labour Companies.
There are now over 450, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 40 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. The graves of two other German soldiers have been removed.
The cemetery covers an area of 2,650 square metres and is enclosed by a low concrete curb. The cemetery was named as Authuile Military Cemetery at the time of creation and C.W.G.C. maintain this as the historic name of the cemetery.
The cemetery is best known for having inspired the Eric Bogle song ‘No Man’s Land,’ which names Private William McBride of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. McBride is buried in grave D7. (To add confusion, there is also a Private W. McBride, also of the Royal Inniskillings, buried in grave A36.)
The pictures shown here were taken on 14 July 2023 and 14 July 2024 using a Sony A7R IV camera body and Sony FE 24-70mm GM and FE16-35mm GM lenses and Laowa 12mm F2.8 Zero-D and Laowa 10mm F2.8 Zero-D FF lenses.
The music is the best-known version of ‘No Man’s Land:’ the recording is by the Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur and is retitled ‘The Green Fields of France.’
The trench map is courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.
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