Op La Boisselle - Fricourt German Cemetery

 The Fricourt German war cemetery contains 17,027 casualties of which 6,477 identities are unknown.

Of the 17,000 burials, about 1,000 died in the autumn of 1914 and the ensuing trench warfare; about 10,000 during the Battle of the Somme (July–November 1916); and the final 6,000 in the German spring offensive of 1918 and the ensuing Allied counter-attack, the Hundred Days Offensive.

The cemetery was established in 1920 by the the French military authorities as a concentration of burials from 79 communes in the regions around Bapaume, Albert, Combles, the Ancre valley and Villers-Bretonneux,

Fricourt German Cemetery Entrance

Fricourt German Cemetery

Fricourt German Cemetery

Fricourt German Cemetery

Fricourt German Cemetery

Fricourt German Cemetery

Fricourt German Cemetery

Somme - Fricourt and Mametz

The objectives of XV Corps were the villages of Fricourt and Mametz.  The strong defences in Fricourt and Fricourt Wood ruled out a direct frontal attack. The plan was the 21^st Division would outflank Fricourt to its north. The 7^th Division would capture Mametz, link up with the 21^st Division, and then a brigade from each Division would assault Fricourt.

The British finally achieved some success. In this area counter battery fire had been effective and many of the German guns were destroyed or neutralised. A creeping barrage was used allowing the infantry to close on the German trenches. Mametz was secured; Fricourt would fall on the 2^nd July to the 21^st Division, which included the 12^th and 13^th Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Success was not without casualties. The 10^th West Yorks at Fricourt sustained the heaviest casualties for a British Army unit on a single day throughout the war, 22 Officers and 688 other ranks.

Included in those casualties was Major JL Knott of Close House, Wylam, and son of Tyneside shipping owner John Knott. John Knott used his influence to have his son buried next to his brother in Ypres, the latter being killed in action in 1915





Memorial Fricourt