With 11,961 burials Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. 8,373 are unidentified. The Memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 and whose graves are not known. Tyne Cot marks the farthest point in Belgium reached by Commonwealth forces in the Third Battle of Ypres (1917). It's located near the village of Passendale (or "Passchendaele" and "Passiondale") which came to summarize all the carnage and suffering of the Western Front, just like Verdun and The Somme. Tyne Cot is built on a slope overlooking the landscape towards Ypres. It helps to understand the strategic advantage of these ridges. The Germans reinforced them with bunkers. It took the Commonwealth Forces 4 months and 250,000 casualties to gain five miles. The scheduled breakthrough was not achieved. The Cross of Sacrifice was built above a German bunker.
The Tyne Cot Memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by F. V. Blundstone.
Tyne Cot is built on a slope overlooking the landscape towards Ypres - the city's towers can be seen in the centre. By 1917 the city had been reduced to rubble. It helps to understand the strategic advantage of these ridges. For most of the war the Germans held all the high grounds in the Ypres Salient (with the exception of the Bluff near the Palingbeek) and reinforced them with concrete bunkers. It took the Commonwealth Forces 4 months and 250,000 casualties to gain five miles. The scheduled breakthrough was not achieved.
