Up the line
Standing in rows
A whistle blows.
Loved ones weeping.
In the fields
Poppies grow,
Where friends and foe
Are sleeping.
In our hearts
We hold them dear
Who knew no fear.
Memoria keeping.
We will remember them.
© Karen Ette
The village of Serre-les-Puisieux is 11 kilometres north-north-east of Albert. The German front line
trenches crossed the Serre Road (D919) just about here in 1916 and entered No Man’s Land about three quarters of a
mile south west of Serre.
On the first day
of the battle of the Somme (1 July 1916), the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked and some parties of the 31st Division did reach Serre, but the attack
failed. The 31st Division, with the 3rd Division this time, unsuccessfully
attacked again on the 13th November 1916.
The 22nd
Manchesters did manage to occupy Serre on 25 February 1917, but the village was
back in German hands in March 1918 until they withdrew in August of that year.
Spring 1917 saw
the battlefields of the Somme and Ancre cleared by V Corps and new
cemeteries were made; three named from the Serre Road.
Serre Road
Cemetery No.1 was begun in May 1917 and these graves can now be found in Plot
I, Rows A to G.
 |
| Lance Corporal 24396 Whattoff Adcock of the South Staffordshire Regiment |
On the back wall
are special memorials to twenty-two men who are known or believed to be buried
here. There are also special memorials to several men who were buried in other
cemeteries, but whose graves were later destroyed in other battles.
The cemetery is immaculately maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who do admirable work.
 |
Looking along the rows
 |
| Looking from the cemetery towards Redan Ridge |
As you climb the slope two brothers are buried together on the right-hand side, Plot 4, row
C.
French Canadians, Charles Destrube aged 27 and Paul Destrube aged 26 were
both serving with the 22nd Royal Fusiliers, and died together on the 17th of
February 1917.
Neither wanted to
be Lance Corporal, but Charles, being the elder, was given that rank. They died
with their arms linked and the epitaph on their grave reads:
Unis dans la mort
comme ils l’etaient dans la vie – united in death as they were in life.
