France - Rancourt

I wanted to visit a French and a German cemetery, so we went to the nearby town of Rancourt. Here there is one of the largest French Cemeteries from WWI, and there is also a small British cemetery as well as a large German one.

The French headstones are in the shape of a cross, and they are back to back here. There are about 4000 soldiers buried in this cemetery, plus 7000 more in four ossuaries - about 11,000 in total. Compared with the Commonwealth cemeteries, it doesn't look as well tended. The grass is quite long, and clippings from previous mowings have been left on the lawn. The garden beds are bare - only a few bushes, whereas the Commonwealth cemeteries are filled with flowers.

Caelli sitting in the shade

Three of the four ossuaries - the gardens on the corners with yellow flowers

Crosses back to back

Back to back with a non-Christian (or a non-believer)

Not all the headstones are crosses

A Muslim soldier?

Two more in the background, with crosses behind them

"Unknown soldier"

There is also a chapel here, which was built by the mother of one of the soldiers in honour of her son. This has eventually been taken over by the government.

The stone on the right tells about the ossuaries

Across the road is a very small Commonwealth cemetery with 83 soldiers (and two guys from CWGC working there). You can see both the French cemetery and the German cemetery from here.

The crosses from the French cemetery visible on the other side of the road

And the German cemetery is in the trees on the opposite side

The German crosses are made from dark stone, and have multiple names on both front and back, so between four and six soldiers to a grave. There are no flower beds here; only grass.

Literally: German soldiers' cemetery

Visible on the right - the French chapel, and on the left - the cross from the CWGC cemetery

The second soldier is unknown

"Krieg" means war; "Freiwilliger" means volunteer

Half a dozen flat stones (we have no idea why)

This one is intriguing. Is "French" the name of a soldier?

The Jewish soldiers have a different headstone

These headstones are mossy green because they are under trees

No names, but the numbers indicate that there are three soldiers here

Two unknow soldiers here, but only the named soldier has a number

Up the back there are two ossuaries, each displaying five unmarked crosses of a different brown stone, and in between, a little chapel (?) which we couldn't enter. There were also seven or eight panels of names of soldiers in the ossuaries.

"Here rest German soldiers"

Caelli is standing next to the panels of names

One of the panels

On the way home, we popped in to the CWGC cemetery in the village of Doingt (pronounced Dwa; the "a" sound as in apple), which is about 3km from our BnB. It's another "extension" cemetery - it's tacked onto the back of the local cemetery. This one was lovely.

A wheat crop on the right

And you can see the local cemetery behind

Checking the register and signing the guestbook