Flers was captured during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, where tanks were used in combat for the first time. The village was later recaptured by the Germans in March 1918 and recaptured by the Allies in August.
The cemetery was begun by Australian medical units posted in neighboring caves from Nov. 1915 to Feb. 1917. The original graves are in Plot 1, Rows A and B.The great majority of the graves date from the autumn of 1916, but there is one from 1914.
Other bodies were moved here after the war. Currently there are graves for 3,475 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War either buried or commemorated. Some 2,263 are unidentified. In addition, 170 French military and even there Germans are buried here.
--Cooter
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