| Citation:
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| Additional
Information: |
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| Cemetery: |
HARLEBEKE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, Harelbeke, West-Vlaanderen,
Belgium |
| Grave Reference/Panel Number: |
I. D. 3. |
| Location: |
Harlebeke New British Cemetery is located 32 kilometres east of
Ieper town centre on a road leading from the N8 Meenseweg, connecting
Ieper to Menen, Wevelgem, Kortrijk and Zwevegem. Ieper is linked to
Kortrijk via the N8 passing through Menen and Wevelgem, joining the A17
1.5 kilometres after Wevelgem, in the direction of Gent. The A17 continues
for 4 kilometres then meets the junction with the E17 continuing towards
Gent. 12 kilometres along the E17 lies the junction with the N36 towards
Harlebeke. The N36 ends at a T junction with the N43. Turning left at this
junction towards Kortrijk leads to the left hand turning onto
Deerlijksestraat. The cemetery is located 250 metres along the
Deerlijksestraat on the left hand side.
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| Historical Information: |
Harlebeke village was taken on the night of the 19th-20th October,
1918 by the 9th (Scottish) Division, which at that time included the 1st
Battalion, Royal Newfoundland Regiment; and in memory of the last days of
that battalion in Belgium the Newfoundland Government have erected a
monument on the South-East side of the road to Courtrai. Harlebeke New
British Cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of
graves from the surrounding battlefields of 1918 and (in 1924-25) from
German Cemeteries or Plots in Belgium; the ealier concentrations are in
Plots I and X, and the later in Plots I, II and XI to XIX; and in the
latter group are many graves of October, 1914. There are now over 1,000,
1914-18 and 10, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of
these, nearly 200 from the 1914-18 War are unidentified and a special
memorial is erected to one soldier from the United Kingdom who is believed
to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 19
soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried by the enemy in other graveyards,
whose graves could not be found. The cemetery covers an area of 4,468
square metres and is enclosed by low rubble
walls. |