RE Grave Railway Wood Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

RE Grave Railway Wood is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.

This cemetery is unusual for being both a cemetery and a memorial; additionally, it has no gravestones, choosing instead to commemorate the men who died on the Cross of Sacrifice itself.

Foundation
The cemetery was founded by Commonwealth troops in November 1915 and remained in use until August 1917.

It commemorates the 8 men of the 177th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers, and the 4 infantry who were killed whilst tunnelling under the hill on which the memorial stands and whose bodies remain in situ.

Tunneling
All sides would engaged in vigorous mining and counter-mining duels under rises in the Ypres Salient and the Somme. Specialist tunnelling companies, like the 177th, usually made up of men who had been coal miners in civilian life, would dig tunnels under no man's land and beneath the enemy's trenches. These mines would then be packed with explosives and detonated, producing a large crater. The crater served two purposes: it could destroy or breach the enemy's trench and, by virtue of the raised lip that they produced, could provide a ready-made "trench" closer to the enemy's line. When a mine was detonated, both sides would race to occupy and fortify the crater.

Inscription
The factual inscription across three sides of the Cross of Sacrifice reads: Beneath this spot lie the bodies of an officer, three NCOs and eight men of or attached to the / 177th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers / who were killed in action underground during the defence of Ypres between November 1915 and August 1917.