Fury of heroes' families as Army crushes hundreds of war graves into gravel for drainage ditch

By SEAN RAYMENT and MARK NICOL, DEFENCE EDITOR Published: 22:09, 1 August 2026 | Updated: 22:23, 1 August 2026 Defence chiefs have been accused of showing 'shocking disregard' for Britain's war dead after destroying almost 800 First and Second World War gravestones of Commonwealth soldiers killed in the Iraqi desert. Furious families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country say that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is guilty of a cover-up lasting more than 20 years. The British Army removed dozens of gravestones and panels engraved with the names of the fallen from the Basra War Cemetery in southern Iraq in 2003 amid fears that they could be destroyed or vandalised by locals. As well as hundreds of gravestones, 80 large, 2 in-thick slate panels bearing the regimental crests of Army units and the names of the war dead were also removed. The remains of the soldiers –who died in the First and Second World Wars – stayed buried but unmarked. Within 18 months, almost all of the gravestones and panels had been deliberately pulverised into gravel and used to fill a drainage ditch at another military base in southern Iraq. The work was overseen by 64 Works Group, Royal Engineers and appears to have gone ahead after the assent of a padre. Ben Soppitt, whose grandfather, Gunner Joseph Soppitt, was buried in Basra War Cemetery, claims the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and the Ministry of Defence tried to hide the truth about the demolition from the public. British Army Personnel with Removed Panels and Gravestones, Basra 2003 Ben Soppitt's grandfather, Gunner Joseph Soppitt, is among those buried at Basra War Cemetery Details of the destruction of the gravestones only emerged recently after the publication of Freedom of Information (FoI)responses by Mr Soppitt, 55, who lives near San Francisco. The MoD had to respond to his requests because the Information Commissioner stepped in to order their release. The FoI disclosures reveal that the gravestones were crushed into gravel and used to build a drain inside the British Army's Shaibah Logistics Base, nine miles south-west of Basra, in April 2005. The Mail's chief reporter David Williams visited the cemetery just the week before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and found that the local militia had been using the gravestones for target practice – explaining why the army removed them, though no such action was taken at any other graveyard in Iraq. In footage from the time showing the operation to remove the gravestones, an unnamed officer said: 'We have collected all the gravestones together along with the tablets which have the names of all those people who died bravely during the First World War and Second World War. 'We have put them all into the back of the truck. We will take them back to our camp where we will hold them for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which will come back in the future and restore this cemetery to its former glory.' The FoI disclosures show a SITREP (situation report) from 64 Works Group, Royal Engineers in April 2005 records: 'The gravestones have now been crushed and are ready to be placed in the soakaway.' Field Marshal The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, the former chief of the defence staff, said he had no doubt the soldiers who removed the stones thought they were doing the right thing. The vast memorial in the deserts outside the Southern Iraq city of Basra which contains the names of thousands of British Empire soldiers who died in the First World War, which now lies in semi-ruin Lord Richards, who served as Assistant Chief of the General Staff at the time the gravestones were destroyed, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I am deeply saddened by what happened to this cemetery. With the benefit of hindsight there is of course no excuse. However, I have no doubt that in the dangerous and febrile environment of Basra at the time, the officers who took this decision thought they were doing the right thing.' But Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff, said: 'The Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is the Secretary of State for Defence. A decision should be taken to either re-instate all the graves, probably now impossible, or otherwise put in place a memorial with all the names of those buried in the cemetery with a suitable explanation of recent events.' Mr Soppitt travelled to Basra last year with a new granite gravestone to mark the grave of his grandfather, who died from dysentery in 1941. A service was held, attended by the Archbishop of Basra and local residents. Gunner Joseph Soppitt was one of more than 360 Britons who lie in the cemetery alongside comrades from India, Poland and other Commonwealth nations. Mr Soppitt has made a High Court application for Judicial Review into the destruction, with the aim of holding the MoD accountable. He said: 'The MoD is fighting this claim, unwilling to bear the cost of ensuring the over 3,000 men and women buried there are properly commemorated with the honour they deserve and that the public expects. 'It is a bitter irony that a member of the public, a relative of one of the casualties buried at Basra, is having to pursue the MoD through the courts simply to secure the basic dignity of commemoration that those who died in service are owed.' In contrast, Basra Memorial, only 30km away from the cemetery, was left untouched. The MoD said it is unable to comment for legal reasons. Among the 800 men whose gravestones and memorial panels at the First and Second War World cemetery in Iraq were summarily pulverised on the orders of the Ministry of Defence, 130 were from a forerunner of my own regiment, the Royal Anglian. So you can appreciate why I am appalled at such a callous disdain for the memory of the fallen. It does not matter that some of these men died over a century ago, what matters is that they did so fighting for their country. Such patriotism and heroism should never be treated so shabbily. The Army removed the headstones for their own safety in 2003, after British forces invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq. No doubt the removal was carried out by soldiers in good faith that the stones would be replaced when the time was right. But that faith was betrayed after 18 months, when it appears that the MoD decided the stones should be destroyed. Having fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can sympathise with soldiers given wrong-headed orders from London, clueless as to the reality on the ground. In Kabul, we had intelligence of a planned coup d'etat on the parliament building. We understood that the thrust of the assault would be carried out by tanks. Only, when I proposed to lay anti-tank mines around the insurgents' tank enclosure, the MoD's response was one of horror – along the lines of 'You do realise Afghanistan is the most land-mined country in the world?' A few more to prevent huge political upheaval seemed a price worth paying to me, but we thwarted the coup nonetheless. Soldiers follow orders, and those in Iraq who helped in the destruction of the headstones would have done so with a heavy heart. It must have been galling to know that a drainage ditch had been filled in a way that was so obscene to the memory of past British soldiers. But what twists the knife is the evasiveness of the top brass. They have stonewalled the attempts of relatives of those buried there to get to the truth. Only begrudgingly revealing the sorry episode after being taken to the Information Commissioner. But even public shame about their behaviour has not prompted the MoD to make right the scandal. The cemetery in Basra is still bare, the fallen still unmarked. It beggars belief that new headstones have not been erected in their place. These are soldiers who died in the most horrific of circumstances, often under constant gunfire, in punishing heat and with little in the way of sanitary facilities, meaning that death by dysentery was grimly common. They deserve a cemetery that befits their sacrifice. If the MoD believes new headstones would be vandalised I urge them to visit Kabul, where locals respectfully tend to a British cemetery I visited there. To ensure the upkeep of the Basra site, surely we could expect the co-operation of the Iraqi government, which is the recipient of many billions of pounds in British economic aid? Even if the cemetery is vandalised, so be it: that can be repaired. What cannot is the permanent deletion of their memory from the ground where they are buried – effectively killing them twice. The MoD must correct its terrible mistake: failure to do so shames our country.