Model of the proposed German Military Cemetery on Cannock Chase

SRO C/C/Pr/5/1/4

© Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge

In 1962 Staffordshire County Council gave a site on Cannock Chase to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the establishment of a cemetery for the burial of all the German dead of two World Wars who had died in the United Kingdom. This is now known as the German Military Cemetery. This photograph shows a model layout of the proposed design prepared for the German War Graves Commission

Over the next five years the work of transferring the bodies of the German war dead from cemeteries around the country was carried out. Parties of German young people from Bremen carried out the work of digging the perimeter ditch around the proposed cemetery. Organised contact with local youth clubs in Staffordshire during these working visits ensured a spirit of true reconciliation and friendship.

Today the tradition of young Germans coming to Staffordshire annually to work at the cemetery continues.

The cemetery was completed in 1967. In all 2,138 German military personnel from World War 1 and 2,845 from World War II are interred there.