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Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery; Berkshire Cemetery Extension and Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing

Taken from Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery, looking across the main road to the Extension and memorial. 83 British soldiers lie in the original cemetery, and another 394 in the extension. 11,447 missing of the 1914 battles of Armentieres and Aubers, and the German advance here in 1918, are commemorated in this magnificent memorial. Plug Street Wood, familiar to thousands of men of the BEF, lies behind the camera.

In the wood are Rifle House, Toronto Avenue and Ploegsteert Wood Cemeteries, containing in all the graves of 473 British soldiers. Although it was a notoriously quiet spot, many died here from isolated shelling and, especially in the early years, intensive sniping activity. The wood contains several concrete shelters and other traces of trench excavations.

On the Northern edge of the wood are Prowse Point and Mud Corner cemeteries, together containing another 300 graves. The camera is in Prose Point, looking down at Mud Corner; the name is obvious this busy track towards the front lies in a shallow depression where water readily collects, to this day.

Lancashire Cottage Cemetery

South of the wood, 254 men lie in this battlefield cemetery.

Let's go north again, to Ypres
 
Sacred Ground: Following in their footsteps