Commonwealth War Cemetery Assisi

The Assisi Commonwealth Cemetery is located just outside the town of Rivotorto with the ancient town of Assisi in the hills behind it.

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. Progress through southern Italy was rapid despite stiff resistance, but the advance was checked for some months at the German winter defensive position known as the Gustav Line. The line eventually fell in May 1944 and as the Germans withdrew, Rome was taken by the Allies on 3 June.

Many of the burials in this cemetery date from June and July 1944, when the Germans were making their first attempts to stop the Allied advance north of Rome in this region.

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

Assisi War Cemetery contains 949 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War:
- 800 British.
- 49 Canadians.
- 29 New Zealanders.
- 55 South Africans.
- 10 Indians.
- 1 Pioneer Corps of South Africa,
- 4 other Allies.
- 1 entirely unidentified.

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