Fleurbaix

The Rue-du-Bois Military Cemetery is a World War I cemetery located in the commune of Fleurbaix, in the Pas-de-Calais departement of France, about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of the village of Fleurbaix on the D171 road (rue Louis Bouquet), just before the hamlet of Pétillon. Of the 845 graves, 395 are of unknown soldiers.

Erquinghem-Lys (French pronunciation: ​[ɛʁkɛ̃ɡɛm lis]) (Erkegem an de Leie in West Flemish) is a commune situated in the Nord department in northern France.It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. Erquinghem is one of a series of villages on the river Lys established by the Viking Rikiwulf in 880 AD at the time of the invasion led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia: Racquinghem, Reclinghem, Rekkem and Rijkegem (the latter two now in West Flanders - Belgium). Erquinghem-Lys has been twinned with Skipton, North Yorkshire, England since 24 October 2009.

The Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery is a World War I cemetery located in the commune of Fleurbaix, in the Pas-de-Calais departement of France, about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the village of Fleurbaix on the D175 road (rue de Pétillon).British soldiers of the 19th Infantry Brigade made the earliest burials at the site in October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres. By the end of the war, the cemetery contained 123 graves. This number nearly tripled after a postwar consolidation of war burial sites, when Le Trou Aid Post was expanded by the architect Sir Herbert Baker.Described as one of Baker's most sentimental works, the rural site is surrounded by a narrow moat and sheltered by a grove of weeping willows. Visitors approach over a footbridge and enter through a delicate cottage-style gateway.The cemetery contains more than 350 graves, and over two hundred are unidentified. The dead represent the battlefields of Ypres, Le Maisnil (October 1914), Aubers Ridge (May 1915), Loos (September–October 1915), and Fromelles (July 1916).

The V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I cemetery and memorial. The site is located in the commune of Fromelles, in the Nord departement of France, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of the village of Fromelles on the D22C road (rue Delval).

Bois-Grenier (French pronunciation: ​[bwa ɡʁənje]) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Located south of Armentières and bordering with the department of Pas-de-Calais.

Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery is a First World War cemetery built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the outskirts of Fromelles in northern France, near the Belgian border. Constructed between 2009 and 2010, it was the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery for more than 50 years, the last such cemeteries having been built after the Second World War. The cemetery contains the graves of 250 British and Australian soldiers who died on 19 July 1916 in the Battle of Fromelles. The bodies were discovered following historical research that included analysis of aerial photographs showing the presence of mass graves on the edge of Pheasant Wood (Bois Faisan), just outside the village of Fromelles. The presence of the bodies was confirmed in May 2008, and the bodies were recovered during excavation work in 2009. A specially convened Identification Board published a report on 17 March 2010 announcing the first 75 bodies to have been successfully identified using DNA analysis. Further identification continued until at least 2014. In parallel with the recovery and identification projects, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was asked by the British and Australian governments to construct a new cemetery to house the bodies. Building work on the cemetery began in May 2009, and the main structural elements were completed by January 2010. The dead soldiers were reburied with full military honours in a series of funeral services in January and February 2010. The ceremonial first reburial took place on 30 January 2010. Following this period of reburials, topsoil was added to the cemetery, and the horticultural elements planted and allowed to grow into place. One final reburial took place as part of the cemetery's dedication ceremony, which was held on 19 July 2010 to mark the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles.

Fromelles (pronounced [fʁɔmɛl]) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. As of 2019 it had a population of 1,041; its inhabitants are called Fromellois. It is located about 16 kilometres (10 mi) to the west of Lille.

Winter operations 1914–1915 is the name given to military operations during the First World War, from 23 November 1914 – 6 February 1915, in the 1921 report of the British government Battles Nomenclature Committee. The operations took place on the part of the Western Front held by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), in French and Belgian Flanders. After the northern flank of the Western Front had disappeared during the Race to the Sea in late 1914, the Franco-British attacked towards Lille in October, then the BEF, Belgians and the French Eighth Army attacked in Belgium. A German offensive began on 21 October but the 4th Army (Generaloberst Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg) and 6th Army (Generaloberst Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria) were only able to take small amounts of ground, at great cost to both sides, at the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October) and further south in the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November). By 8 November, the Germans realised that the advance along the coast had failed and that taking Ypres was impossible. Attacks by both sides had quickly been defeated and the opposing armies had improvised field defences, against which attacks were costly failures. By the end of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914, both sides were exhausted, short of ammunition and suffering from collapses in morale; some infantry units refused orders. The mutual defeat of the First Battle of Flanders was followed by trench warfare, in which both sides tried to improve their positions as far as the winter weather, mutual exhaustion and chronic equipment and ammunition shortages allowed.

The Battle of Armentières (also Battle of Lille) was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea. Troops of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) moved north from the Aisne front in early October and then joined in a general advance with French troops further south, pushing German cavalry and Jäger back towards Lille until 19 October. German infantry reinforcements of the 6th Army arrived in the area during October. The 6th Army began attacks from Arras north to Armentières in late October, which were faced by the BEF III Corps from Rouges Bancs, past Armentières north to the Douve river beyond the Lys. During desperate and mutually costly German attacks, the III Corps, with some British and French reinforcements, was pushed back several times, in the 6th Division area on the right flank but managed to retain Armentières. The offensive of the German 4th Army at Ypres and the Yser was made the principal German effort and the attacks of the 6th Army were reduced to probes and holding attacks at the end of October, which gradually diminished during November.

Armentières (French pronunciation: ​[aʁmɑ̃tjɛʁ]; West Flemish: Armentiers) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.The motto of the town is Pauvre mais fière (Poor but proud).