Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Contalmaison is a small village to the SW of Pozieres towards the River Somme.  It is in 'dead ground'  (ie below the libe of sight) to Poziers  and for this and other reasons it was through hee that AIF soldies approached the front dueing Poziers and Mouquet Farm.   For that reason it was subject to harrassing artillery fire on a frequent basis.  Protection from such fire was greatest in the 'sunken roads' that border many paddocks.

The Sunken Road Cemetery was made in July-October 1916, during the middle fighting in the Somme offensive. There are now over 200, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number are unidentified and three Australian graves, which cannot be located, are represented by special memorials. The graves of two German soldiers, buried by the enemy at the end of March 1918, have been removed. The cemetery covers an area of 1,106 square metres, without the access road and is enclosed by a low red brick wall.