The Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery () is on

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...

, Staffordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The cemetery contains nearly 5,000 burials from both the First and Second World War. The burials are mainly German and Austrian nationals with a very small number of Ukrainians.

History

On 16 October 1959, the governments of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

made an agreement about the future care of the remains of German military personnel and German civilian internees of both world wars which at the time were interred in various cemeteries not already maintained by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...

. It was agreed that the remains would be transferred to a single central cemetery established on

for this purpose. The German War Graves Commission (' or "VDK") made the necessary arrangements and the inauguration and dedication of this cemetery – which is maintained under the inter-government agreement by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – was inaugurated and dedicated in June 1967. It contains nearly 5,000 German and Austrian graves. A number of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Ukrainian volunteers captured when in German service are also buried here. Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery - Burial details June 2015

Layout of the cemetery

The entrance building contains toilets for visitors and a visiting room where the cemetery register is available on request. A plan of the plots within the cemetery is also on display. From here a small courtyard with a covered passage forms the connection to the Hall of Honour, which has at its centre, resting on a large block of stone, a bronze sculpture of a fallen warrior, by the eminent German sculptor, Professor Hans Wimmer. Open passageways give a clear view of two terraces. On the west-facing terrace there is a granite monument to the crews of the four airships (

SL 11 SL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * SL (rapper), a rapper from London * ''Second Life'', a multi-user 3D virtual world * Sensei's Library, an Internet site dedicated to the game of Go * Subdominant leittonwechselklänge * Leica SL, a mirro ...

, L32, L31, L48) shot down in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and who lie buried here in a tomb in separate sarcophagi. Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery - Fallen Soldier by Hans Wimmer

The other terrace forms a link between the Hall of Honour and the cemetery. The graves of the dead of the First and Second World War are generally separated and lie on either side of the gentle slopes of the cemetery with a valley between them. The burials are marked by headstones from Belgian

Petit Granit Petit Granit (also known by a variety of names including: Nero Belga, Granit de Flandre, Pierre Bleue, Blue Stone, Belgian Granite, Belgian Blue Limestone, Arduin) is, despite its name, a grey-bluish limestone, rather than being a true Granite. It i ...

and are usually inscribed for two individuals on the front and on the back.

Notable graves

Notable people include: * Ernst Busch, World War II German Field-Marshal and (''Blue Max'') recipient. * Leo Gburek, German geophysicist,

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

Weather Observer and a member of the

Third German Antarctic Expedition New Swabia (Norwegian and german: Neuschwabenland) was a disputed Antarctic claim by Nazi Germany within the Norwegian territorial claim of Queen Maud Land and is now a cartographic name sometimes given to an area of Antarctica between 20°E a ...

* Hans Hahn, World War II German Luftwaffe flying ace. * Maximilian von Herff, World War II German SS-General. * Heinrich Mathy, World War I German Zeppelin commander, killed in 1916. * Karl Ritscherle, World War I German flying ace and World War II Luftwaffe major, killed during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. * Alois Stoeckl, World War II German Luftwaffe

Oberst ''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish ...

, killed during the Battle of Britain.

German war graves elsewhere in UK

According to the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, just over 1,000 German

casualties are buried elsewhere in the UK ('' and Islands''), including 111 at

Saint Peter Port St. Peter Port (french: Saint-Pierre Port) is a town and one of the ten parishes on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2019 was 18,958. St. ...

(Fort George), Guernsey, and others at

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regi ...

, Surrey. The remainder are interred in Commonwealth War Graves Commission-administered plots all over the UK, often near where their bodies were found or where they died. For example, three

bomber crew, whose Dornier ditched in the sea off Kingsdown, Kent in 1940, were buried in the military section of Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal, Kent, less than two miles from the crash. In the same locality as this cemetery, the Commonwealth Cannock Chase War Cemetery contains 286 German war graves, primarily of those who died in a local prisoner-of-war camp and hospital in World War I but also including graves of 58 Germans who had been reinterred here in 1963. A proposal was made to rebury in this cemetery former

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

officer Carl Hans Lody (shot for espionage at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

in 1914) in the 1960s. The VDK asked if it would be possible to disinter Lody's body from

East London Cemetery The East London Cemetery and Crematorium are located in West Ham in the London Borough of Newham. It is owned and operated by the Dignity Funeral Group. History The cemetery was founded in 1871 and laid out in 1872 to meet the increasing dema ...

in Plaistow and move it to Cannock Chase. By that time, the plot had been reused for further common graves, buried above Lody's body. The VDK was told that it would not be possible to disinter the other bodies without the permission of the relatives, which would have been an almost impossible task where common graves were concerned. The proposal was abandoned and Lody's body remains at Plaistow.

References

External links