Doiran Military Cemetery

📍 Doirani, Δοϊράνη, Grecia

897

Deceased

52.578

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Grecia

Country

About the cemetery

Doiran Military Cemetery is situated in the north of Greece close to the Macedonia border and near the south-east shore of Lake Doiran. It is approximately 2 kilometres north west of Drossato village behind and to the west of Doirani village and is reached via a farm track. From Thessaloniki take the Thessaloniki – Kilkis National Road north for approximately 70 km following the directions for the town of Kilkis until you come to a crossroads with the town of Drossato on your right. Turn left at this crossroad following the signs for Doirani Village/Lake and Customs. Continue on this road for approximately 2 km where you shall pick up the CWGC signs on the outskirts of the village that shall lead you around the village of Doirani and to the cemetery. The Doiran Memorial, is on what was called Colonial Hill, it can be seen from a distance and is clearly signposted. The cemetery (originally known as Colonial Hill Cemetery No.2) was formed at the end of 1916 as a cemetery for the Doiran front. The graves are almost entirely those of officers and men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions and largely reflect the fighting of April and May 1917 (the attacks on the Petit-Couronne), and 18-19 September 1918 (the attacks on Pip Ridge and the Grand-Couronne). In October and November 1918, after the final advance, a few burials took place from the 25th Casualty Clearing Station. After the Armistice, graves were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields and from by some small burial grounds, the most important of which was Strumnitza British Military Cemetery, north-west of Doiran, made by the 40th Casualty Clearing Station in October and November 1918. DOIRAN MILITARY CEMETERY now contains 1,338 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 449 of them unidentified. There are also one French and 45 Greek war graves. The DOIRAN MEMORIAL, which stands near the cemetery, serves the dual purpose of Battle Memorial of the British Salonika Force (for which a large sum of money was subscribed by the officers and men of that force), and place of commemoration for more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in Macedonia and whose graves are not known. The memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Walter Gilbert.