Wicres "Route de la Bassée"

Wicres/ Route-de-la-Bassée Département Nord 584 German war dead First World War The German military cemetery was established in March 1915 for the fallen of the Infanterie Reg.15 and the Res.Inf.Reg.15 (Minden/Westphalia). Both regiments were buried here until March 1916. The majority of the fallen - around 470 - lost their lives in the battles of spring and fall 1915 while fending off Allied attacks and in positional fighting until spring 1916. The fallen of 1914 died in the fierce fighting in October between Arras and Ypres. After the war, the French military authorities dissolved the cemeteries of the Bavarian Res.Inf.Reg. 16 and 17 as well as another small site in the surrounding area and buried the dead in Wicres. During the war, the cemetery was given a dividing wall and a massive high cross as its centerpiece, the work of sculptor Otto Richter, who also created the façade decoration on the Reichstag building in Berlin. Repair work between the wars As a result of an agreement reached with the responsible French military authorities in 1926, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) began initial repair work on the enclosure in 1927 and later revised the planting. However, the problem of permanently marking the graves remained unresolved due to a lack of foreign currency and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Final design Following the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. - financially supported by the German government - was able to undertake the final design of the German military cemeteries of the First World War in France. In addition to a fundamental landscaping overhaul, the previous temporary grave markers were replaced with pillow stones in 1979, on which metal plates engraved with the names and dates of those buried here are fixed. Groups of crosses made of natural stone mark the graves. The entrance to the cemetery has also been redesigned. All 584 fallen soldiers rest in individual graves; 30 of them remain unnamed. The grave of a fallen of the Jewish faith was given its own grave marker for religious reasons. Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly maintained by the Volksbund's maintenance service.