Neuve-Chapelle is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Geography

Neuve-Chapelle is situated some 8 miles (12.9 km) northeast of Béthune

Béthune

Béthune is a city in northern France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department.-Geography:Béthune is located in the former province of Artois. It is situated South-East of Calais, West of Lille, and North of Paris.-Landmarks:...

 and 16 miles (25.7 km) southwest of Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

, near the junction of the D947 and D171 roads.

History

The village gave its name to a First World War battle which began on March 10, 1915, and in which it was captured, not for the first time, by the IV and I Indian Corps

I Corps (British India)

for the current Indian Army formation see I Corps The I Indian Corps was an army corps of the British Indian Army in World War I. It was formed at the outbreak of war under the title Indian Corps from troops sent to the Western Front. The British Indian Army did not have a pre-war corps structure,...

. It was later adopted by the County Borough of Blackpool and was awarded the Croix de Guerre

Croix de guerre

The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...

 in 1922.

Population

style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em"|Population history

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006
440	462	471	548	864	958	1374
Census count starting from 1962: Population without duplicates

Places of interest

• The church of St. Christophe, rebuilt, as was much of the commune, after World War I
  World War I
  World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
  
  .
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
  Commonwealth War Graves Commission
  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
  
   cemeteries and memorials.
• The Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial
  Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial
  The Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial is a World War I memorial in France, located on the outskirts of the commune of Neuve-Chapelle, in the département of Pas de Calais. The memorial commemorates some 4742 Indian soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle while fighting for the British Indian...
  
   of the British Indian Army
  British Indian Army
  The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
  
  .
• Finds from the battlefield, in the mairie.

External links

• Website about the battle of Neuve-Chapelle
• The CWGC Indian memorial
• Neuve-Chapelle Farm CWGC cemetery
• The CWGC British cemetery
• The war memorial
• Neuve-Chapelle on the Quid website
• NB - All maplinks can be found by clicking on the coordinates link at the top of the page.