Misplaced Pages

Ploegsteert Wood

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ViennaUK (talk | contribs) at 13:19, 27 November 2016. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 13:19, 27 November 2016 by ViennaUK (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Ploegsteert Wood" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

50°44′13″N 2°53′59″E / 50.73694°N 2.89972°E / 50.73694; 2.89972

A Cross of Sacrifice in Berks CWGG Cemetery Extension

Ploegsteert Wood was a sector of the Western Front in Flanders in World War I, part of the Ypres Salient. It is located around the village of Ploegsteert in the Walloon region of north-western Belgium.

After fierce fighting in late 1914 and early 1915, Ploegsteert Wood became a quiet sector where no major action took place. Units were sent here to recuperate and retrain after tougher fighting elsewhere and before returning to take part in more active operations. British Tommies referred to Ploegsteert Wood as "Plugstreet Wood". From January to May 1916, Winston Churchill served in the area as Commanding Officer (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

There are numerous Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries and memorials around the wood, including the Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) CWGC Cemetery and the Berks CWGG Cemetery Extension with the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing. The Ploegsteert Memorial commemorates more than 11,000 British and Empire servicemen who died during the First World War and have no known grave. It is one of several CWGC Memorials to the Missing along the Western Front. Those lost within the Ypres Salient without a known grave are commemorated at the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, while the missing of New Zealand and Newfoundland are honoured on separate memorials.

Stub icon

This World War I article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: