In September 1944, the battles of
Coriano and
Rimini, from which many of the burials derive, In the Battle of Coriano, the British
Eighth Army engaged the
Wehrmacht from 4 to 13 September.
Oliver Leese, the Eighth Army's commander, called the advance to liberate
Rimini "one of the hardest battles of the Eighth Army ... comparable to
El Alamein,
Mareth, and the
Gustav Line (
Monte Cassino)". Within 37 days of the Battle of Rimini, over 10,000 soldiers had died between the Allied and
Axis forces. Coriano Ridge War Cemetery was constructed in April 1945, using land ceded by the Italian government to the United Kingdom's
War Graves Commission, on the road between Rimini and
Coriano. Soldiers who had been buried in surrounding battlefields were reinterred in the cemetery, notably including 576 soldiers initially buried in
Montescudo who were moved due to the soil's
subsidence. The cemetery collected war dead from Rimini, Coriano, coastal settlements, and the
Valconca. The cemetery was renovated in the late 1950s. In its post-war history, the cemetery has hosted several ceremonies commemorating the battles in the area, which have been attended by foreign dignatories and ambassadors. In September 1979, the 35th anniversary ceremony included a visit by
Nilde Iotti,
President of the Chamber of Deputies, and on 15 May 1980,
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, visited the ceremony as president of the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which manages the cemetery. The cemetery has often been included in veterans' tours of Italy, but since the
September 11 attacks in 2001, the visits of family members and veterans are no longer publicised due to the risk of terrorism. == Layout ==