Commonwealth War Cemetery Cesena

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. Following the fall of Rome to the Allies in June 1944, the German retreat became ordered and successive stands were made on a series of defensive lines.

In the northern Appenine mountains the last of these, the Gothic Line, was breached by the Allies during the Autumn campaign and the front inched forward as far as Ravenna in the Adratic sector, but with divisions transferred to support the new offensive in France and the Germans dug in to a number of key defensive positions, the advance stalled as winter set in.

Most of those buried in this cemetery died during the advance from Rimini to Forli and beyond in September-November 1944, an advance across one flooded river after another in atrocious autumn weather.

The cemetery site was selected in November 1944 and burials were brought in from the surrounding battlefields.

Cesena War Cemetery contains 775 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

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