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Front gate:







The Cemetery is more or less divided, left side Canadian soldiers,
Commonwealth on the right:

   

fantastic, my photochukit has crashed....

gotta wait a little bit...

   

CORIANO RIDGE WAR CEMETERY

Location Information:
Coriano Ridge War Cemetery is 3.5 kilometres west of Riccione, a seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, and is reached by turning west off the main Rimini/Riccione road, the SS 16, about 1 kilometre north-west of Riccione. At this turning there is a sign leading to the cemetery. Follow it in the direction of Coriano until a T junction is reached, then turn left and after a short distance the cemetery will be found on the right-hand side. Cemetery address: Via Piane, 4 - 47853 Coriano (RN) Emilia Romagna. GPS Co-ordinates: Latitude: 43.98485, Longitude: 12.604041.

Historical Information:
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. Coriano Ridge was the last important ridge in the way of the Allied advance in the Adriatic sector in the autumn of 1944. Its capture was the key to Rimini and eventually to the River Po. German parachute and panzer troops, aided by bad weather, resisted all attacks on their positions between 4 and 12 September 1944. On the night of 12 September the Eighth Army reopened its attack on the Ridge, with the 1st British and 5th Canadian Armoured Divisions. This attack was successful in taking the Ridge, but marked the beginning of a week of the heaviest fighting experienced since Cassino in May, with daily losses for the Eighth Army of some 150 killed. The site for the cemetery was selected in April 1945 and was created from graves brought in from the surrounding battlefields. Coriano Ridge War Cemetery contains 1,939 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

No. of Identified Casualties: 1886

   

Nice photos.

   

Here's a dated map of the battles and timeline for those who are buried there.

   

472 Canadians Wil.

and R, I love the ' look for the sign ' stuff..

I swear, if you dont have a GPS, you'll never find half these places anymore,
and the brown signs just disappear into the riff raff of everyone else's.

I have a Garmin, best money spent.

   

I didn't have a Garmin the times I went overseas..........but I do now!!

   

A few Commonwealth soldiers first, I try to look for a Regiment I havent seen before,
or something interesting, obviously I cant post all soldiers headstones.



someone still visits:


A Gurkha soldier:


a young sapper


a sister, probably a nurse:

   

bagpiper warming up:



I have a video of him, have to find out how post that...


The Canadian government had a service marking the 65th anniversary
of the Italian campaign, vets are still marching:



Minister of Veteran's Affairs, the usual speeches.

   

This is Henry Beaudry, Hyack posted a few stories about him last week,
when I first heard about the service:



Tough little guy from Saskatchewan, first trip back to this area.

What the official pictures never show you is his ponytail.
Little thin, very gray, only about a foot long.

I had the priviledge of shaking his hand,
which made the whole trip worth it right there.

   

Wreaths place at the Cenotaph:











someone remembering:

   

Gurkas were historically known to only draw there knives when going to use it and could not put it away without drawing blood. Don't know if there's any truth to that during WWII though.

   

The rest of the pics are Canadian soldiers:

All different soldiers, men who fell in this part of Italy.

I only wish I had room for all of them....











A Dutch guy:



many from the Perth Regiment here:


another Dutchman, maybe R can enlighten us as to
exactly what the Provost Corps does...







another young guy








I will post more pics of the West Nova Scotia Regiment when I do
Ravenna in a couple of days.
Wada and R are helping me get some information about the young
men in that Cemetery, I just want to wait for the dates to line up..

   

Thanks for showing us Marty!

   

Canadian from a Hungarian family:







4 artillery men, still together:







look at the date... very difficult





as the sun sets...








good night boys, thank you and RIP.

   

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