Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Bousbecque

Bousbecque (previously known as either Boesbeke or Busbeke) was occupied by a German pioneer unit on 4 October 1914. Since the village was about 10 kilometres behind the front line, it was also a good place to set up various medical facilities. Within a matter of weeks, the German Army had commandeered the local church and school for use as a field hospital ('Feldlazarett').

And if there was a hospital, then - inevitably - there also had to be a cemetery. The dead who are buried here mostly fell during the great mine battle of Messines in June 1917 or in the final offensive of 1918. The adjacent civil cemetery contains the graves of 26 French soldiers and one Belgian, Private Bartier. Six British soldiers who died of wounds in the 'Feldlazarett' are likewise buried here.

The stone memorial in the German cemetery was only erected as recently as the year 2000. It was originally intended for the village of Hollebeke, but mysteriously 'disappeared', before unexpectedly reappearing in a mason's yard in Bousbecque around the turn of the century. The memorial commemorates the 23rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment, which fought at Hollebeke (5 kilometres south of Ieper) in 1914 and 1915.

The inscription, in old Sütterlin letters, reads: ‘Ihr werdet nie vergessen werden, Gew(idmet) v(om) K.B.23.I.R. den i(m) Hollebeke-Abschnitt gefallenen tapferen Kameraden’. (You will not be forgotten, brave comrades of the 23rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment, who fell in the Hollebeke sector).

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