Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz

• Country France
• Total identified casualties 1539 Find these casualties
• Region Somme
• Identified casualties from First World War
• GPS Coordinates Latitude: 49.99943, Longitude: 2.74371

Location information

Mametz is a village about 8 kilometres east of the town of Albert. The Cemetery is a little east of the village on the north side of the road (D64) to Montauban.

Visiting information

ARRIVAL

Routes to the cemetery are signposted.

PARKING

Car parking is at the front of the cemetery to the side of the road, close to the main entrance.

The ground surface is gravel, the ground is firm.

ACCESS, LAYOUT AND MAIN ENTRANCE

The cemetery is a rectangular shape, it is built over two levels, the highest part of the cemetery is at the main entrance.

There is a double metal gate (above waist height) at the main entrance, approximately 2 metres wide and opens inwards. There is a knocker, latched twist handle on the gate and a small step-up lip where the gate closes as well as a shallow drainage channel cut into the paving inside the entrance. Five stone steps lead up into a shelter building. Steps lead down from the shelter into the cemetery.

Another small shelter building is located opposite the main shelter, in line with the Stone of Remembrance. The smaller shelter has one step leading up to the platform and both have stone benches inside.

The Cross of Sacrifice is near the rear of the cemetery, with a memorial to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers located behind the Cross. A stone bench is part of the memorial.

There is a stepped level change behind the Stone of Remembrance down to the main part of the cemetery.

All internal paths are grass

The Register Box is located inside the main entrance adjacent to the stone steps leading into the site.

ALTERNATIVE ACCESS

An alternative access point (service entrance) is via a path following the side of the cemetery. The entrance has a low level (waist height) metal gate in two sections, with one section opening inwards, approximately 1 metre wide. A low-height pull-up handle opens the gate.

The service entrance is towards the rear of the cemetery in the left-hand corner.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The cemetery is permanently open.

History information

The village of Mametz was carried by the 7th Division on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after very hard fighting at Dantzig Alley (a German trench) and other points. The cemetery was begun later in the same month and was used by field ambulances and fighting units until the following November. The ground was lost during the great German advance in March 1918 but regained in August, and a few graves were added to the cemetery in August and September 1918. At the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of 183 graves, now in Plot I, but it was then very greatly increased by graves (almost all of 1916) brought in from the battlefields north and east of Mametz and from certain smaller burial grounds, including:-

AEROPLANE CEMETERY, FRICOURT, on the old German front line to the south of Fricourt village. It contained the graves of 24 N.C.Os. and men of the 20th Manchesters who died on 1 July 1916.

BOTTOM WOOD CEMETERY, FRICOURT, on the south edge of a small wood between Mametz and Fricourt Woods. This was a field ambulance station for some months from July 1916, and the cemetery contained 104 graves.

BULGAR ALLEY CEMETERY, MAMETZ, 230 metres east of the village, named from a trench. It contained the graves of 24 soldiers who died on 1 July 1916, and all but one of whom belonged to the 22nd Manchesters.

HARE LANE CEMETERY, FRICOURT, at the north-west corner of the village, named from a trench. It contained the graves of 54 soldiers who died on 1 and 2 July 1916, and of whom 49 belonged to the 10th West Yorks.

MAMETZ GERMAN CEMETERY, in which 12 soldiers were buried by their comrades in July and August 1916. This cemetery was near the crossing of the Fricourt-Maricourt and Mametz-Bray roads.

MANSEL COPSE CEMETERY, MAMETZ, on the Fricourt-Maricourt road, near the present Devonshire Cemetery: and MANSEL COPSE WEST CEMETERY, MAMETZ, 460 metres further west. These contained the graves of 51 men of the 2nd Border Regiment, who died on 1 July 1916.

MONTAUBAN ROAD CEMETERY, CARNOY, which contained the graves of 25 soldiers (almost all of the 18th Division) who died on 1 July 1916.

VERNON STREET CEMETERY, CARNOY, in the valley between Carnoy and Maricourt, at a place called "Squeak Forward Position". 110 soldiers who died in July-October 1916 were buried here by the 21st Infantry Brigade and other units.

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery now contains 2,053 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 518 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 17 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 71 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.