"Owl Trench" was a German cross-trench before Rossignol Wood, raided by the 4th New Zealand Rifle Brigade on 15 July 1918, and cleared by the 1st Auckland Regiment five days later.

Owl Trench Cemetery contains the graves of 53 soldiers of which ten are unknown.  The graves are of men who died on 27 February 1917 in an attack on German rearguards by the 31st Division.

Owl Trench Cemetery is unusual in that many of the headstones are memorials to multiple soldiers.  Fourteen of the headstones commemorate three men each while a further headstone is a memorial to two soldiers.

The cemetery was designed by N A Rew.

The Official History states:

"The 31st Division also gained ground, but the 93rd Brigade, on its left was sharply checked at Rossignol Wood. An attack on the wood by the 16th West Yorkshire was for the most part held up, and such elements as reached the wood were caught by enfilading machine gun fire and practically destroyed.

The German trenches are still visible within the section of the wood opposite Rosignol Wood Cemetery.