The cemetery is named after Caterpillar Valley which was the name given by the British army to the long valley which rises eastwards to the high ground at Guillemont.

The cemetery was established on 28 August 1918 following an advance by the 38th (Welsh) Division and initially contained 25 graves.

On 6 November 2004, the remains of an unidentified New Zealand soldier were exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery Plot 14, Row A, Grave 27.

[1] The Battle of the Somme was New Zealand's first major engagement on the Western Front.

This is one of seven memorials in France and Belgium to New Zealand soldiers who died on the Western Front and whose graves are not known.