Commonwealth War Cemetery Bolsena

On 3 September 1943 the Allies invaded the Italian mainland, the invasion coinciding with an armistice made with the Italians who then re-entered the war on the Allied side. Progress through southern Italy was rapid despite stiff resistance, but the advance was checked for some months at the German winter defensive position known as the Gustav Line.

The line eventually fell in May 1944 and as the Germans fell back, Rome was taken by the Allies on 3 June. The Germans made their first stand after being driven north of Rome at Bolsena and to the east of Lake Bolsena, there was a tank battle in June 1944 between the 6th South African Armoured Division and the Hermann Goering Panzer Division.

The site for the cemetery was chosen in November 1944 and graves were brought in from the battlefields between Bolsena and Orvieto. Almost one-third of those buried at Bolsena were South Africans. Later, graves were brought into the cemetery from the Island of Elba.

Bolsena War Cemetery contains 597 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 40 of them unidentified.

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Source

• Text: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Photos: Beatrix Kurris