bounds for the common soldier. The uprising occurred when a New Zealand soldier was arrested when trying to return from Le Touquet to Étaples after sneaking across the Canches river at low tide. A crowd gathered to support the arrested soldier, and during tensions with the military police, another soldier was shot and killed, leading to further conflict. The uprising was ultimately suppressed and military sanctions included an execution and prison sentences. The Casino, completed in 1913, was converted into a military hospital for wounded British troops — the Duchess of Westminster's (No. 1 British Red Cross Society) Hospital. The No. 2 Canadian Stationary Hospital had the distinction of being the first Canadian Unit to land on French soil during the conflict. No. 2 Stationary opened at the Hotel du Golf at Le Touquet on November 27, 1914. Other hotels were also converted into military hospitals. All of the 142 British Commonwealth war graves in Le Touquet's Communal Cemetery are from the hospitals. The graves occupy a plot by the cemetery entrance. The cemetery also contains French and Italian war graves. In the same cemetery a wooden obelisk was erected by the commune's lifeboatmen in honour of the British war dead. World War II From end-May1940 to 1944, more than 40,000 German soldiers occupied the town. In 1941, the Organisation Todt, the German army’s engineering corp, set up operations in Le Touquet, with the primary objective of building the Atlantic Wall in the region. Several bunkers are still clearly visible in the adjacent area. In 1943, the Organisation Todt also demolished the prestigious Atlantic Hotel. Valuable construction materials from the demolition were sent to Germany in train cars marked as bearing “gifts from the French for their German friends.” Other hotels and homes were requisitioned to house German officers and troops.The Atlantic Wall was completed in 1943 and the first Allied bombs hit Le Touquet on October 2, 1943. The children of Le Touquet were evacuated from the city in February 1944; they took refuge in the safer region of Mayenne. In the first days of June 1944, two sets of diversionary bombings (whose purpose was to hide the true target of the D-Day landing) were unleashed on Le Touquet by the Allied forces, causing immense damage and many deaths. Le Touquet was liberated by Canadian armed forces on September 4, 1944. A total of 106,745 mines were identified in