Souchez is a commune of northern France, in the département of Pas-de-Calais. Population (1999): 2,200. One finds there the military cemeteries of the Commonwealth Zouave Valley Cemetery and Red Cabaret, as well as the European Center of the Peace, which presents in particular a collection of objects of the First World War. Souchez belongs to the communauté d'agglomération of Lens-Liévin (Communaupole) which gathers 36 communes, with a total population of 250,000 inhabitants.

Cabaret Rouge: On 26 September 1915, Souchez was taken from the Germans by French troops, who handed the sector over to Commonwealth forces the following March. The village was completely destroyed. The "Cabaret Rouge" was a house on the main road about 1 kilometre south of the village, at a place called Le Corroy, near the cemetery. On the east side, opposite the cemetery, were dugouts used as battalion headquarters in 1916. The communication trenches ended here, including a very long one named from the Cabaret. The cemetery was begun by Commonwealth troops in March 1916, used until August 1917 (largely by the 47th (London) Division and the Canadian Corps) and - at intervals - until September 1918; these original burials are in Plots I to V inclusive. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when more than 7,000 graves were brought in from the battlefields of Arras and from 103 other burial grounds in the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais.
On 25 May 2000, the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier were entrusted to Canada at a ceremony held at the Vimy Memorial, France. The remains had been exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Plot 8, Row E, Grave 7. The remains were laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a sarcophagus placed at the foot of the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa, Canada.

Notre Dame De Lorette: A small building was raised in 1727 by the painter Nicolas Florent Guilbert, who had made a successful pilgrimage to Loreto (Italy), to shelter a statue of the Virgin Mary. It was destroyed in 1794, rebuilt in 1816 and transformed in 1880.
Notre Dame de Lorette with Basilica and Lighthouse is one of the major French National Memorials and Cemeteries. It commemorates bloody figting in January - March 1915, in which the 31st Battalion of French infantry eventually held the line and saved their country. A murderous and determined German attack initially penetrated the line, but were driven back.
The cemetery has 20,000 white crosses, in remembrance of over 120,000 men from both sides who died in this sector.
The bloody battle for this impressive hill started in October 1914 and lasted 12 months until October 1915.


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