War memorials

France: Fricourt Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof

Owners: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
Location: Somme

The cemetery was first created by the French in 1920, but was taken over by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in 1929. It was not finished when the Second World War began, and the original wooden crosses over the graves were not replaced by thin dark metal crosses until 1977. There are 17,026 Germans buried here, mostly casualties of the Battle of the Somme, with 11,970 of them in a mass grave.

Gavin Stamp