| Historical Information: |
During the 1914-1918 War Alexandria became a
great Anglo-French camp and hospital centre, and in 1915 was made the
base of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. The 1939-1945 War saw
Alexandria again an important centre. To the hospitals were brought
casualties from the campaigns in Greece, Crete and the Aegean islands;
camps were set up for men on leave from the desert; Kom el Dikk Fort (constucted
in 1799 by the Napoleonic leader Colonel Criban and occupied by the
British from 1882 until February 1947) was the centre of military
telephonic and telegraphic communications for the Middle and Near East,
the Headquarters of the Military Police and a powerful anti-aircraft
base; and from the port sailed convoys bearing supplies to hard-pressed
Malta. The original part of the cemetery, which is built partly over
Roman catacombs, was acquired in February 1916, when it was found that
the cemetery at Chatby, a few hundred yards to the North-West, would not
be large enough for all the burials from the Alexandria hospitals. It
was first used in April 1916, under the name of Hadra New Military
Cemetery, and it remained in use until December 1919. Nearly all the
burials took place from the 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st General Hospitals
and the Military Hospital at Ras-el-Tin; but a number of graves of
December, 1917 are due to the sinking of transports outside Alexandria.
In December 1919 and January 1920 sixty British graves from some small
graveyards in the Western Desert (due mostly to operations against the
Senussi Arabs) and from Maadia and Rosetta were brought in. There are
now 1,700, 1914-18 war and 1,300, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in
this cemetery. The following are particulars of three of the cemeteries
from which British graves were brought to Hadra War Memorial Cemetery:-
SOLLUM MILITARY CEMETERY. Es Sollum is a small port among lofty hills,
400 kilometres West of Alexandria, on the Tripolitan border. It was
occupied (for the second time) by British forces on the 14th March 1916,
after considerable fighting, and a Rest Camp and a hospital were
established near the shore. The Military Cemetery, on the South side of
Sollum Bay, contained the graves of 30 British soldiers, 1 South African
and 1 French. At Es Sollum, on the 6th November 1915, one Egyptian
coastguard steamer was sunk and one disabled by a German submarine. SIDI
EL BARANI MILITARY CEMETERY. This place is on the sea coast 320
kilometres West of Alexandria. The cemetery, on high ground below the
coastguard station, contained the graves of 14 South African and 2
British soldiers who died in February and March 1916, and a memorial to
the men of the 1st and 3rd South African Infantry who fell at Agagiya on
the 26th February 1916. BIR HAKKIM BURIAL GROUND. Bir Hakkim is 240
kilometres South West of Es Sollum, in the desert. It was the place of
confinement of the prisoners from the armed boarding steamer
"Tara", which was torpedoed in November 1915. They were
rescued by armoured cars soon after the reoccupation of Es Sollum; but 1
officer and 3 men had already died and been buried there. For the
1939-45 War graves, additional land south and west of the original
burial ground was acquired. It was first used in 1941, mainly for
casualties of the campaign in the Western Desert; but there are many
graves of naval men who lost their lives during actions in the
mediterranean. In January 1951 the graves of 124 men were moved into
this cemetery from an outlying African and Indian cemetery known as
Amiriya Military Cemetery. This was in an isolated situation in a desert
area where the graves were liable to desecration and could not be
maintained properly. |