durnbach war cemetery

DURNBACH WAR CEMETERY
HISTORY INFORMATION
The site for Durnbach War Cemetery was chosen, shortly after hostilities had ceased, by officers of the British Army and Air Force, in conjunction with officers of the American Occupation Forces in whose zone Durnbach lay.

The great majority of those buried here are airmen shot down over Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Austria, Hessen and Thuringia, brought from their scattered graves by the Army Graves Service. The remainder are men who were killed while escaping from prisoner of war camps in the same areas, or who died towards the end of the War on forced marches from the camps to more remote areas.

DURNBACH WAR CEMETERY contains 2,934 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 93 of which are unidentified. One grave in the cemetery (III. C. 22.) contains the ashes of an unknown number of unidentified war casualties recovered from Flossenburg. Also, one grave (IV. A. 21.) contains the remains of 6 unidentified U.K. airmen.

There are also 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them Polish.

Within the Indian section of the cemetery will be found the DURNBACH CREMATION MEMORIAL, commemorating 23 servicemen of the army of undivided India who died while prisoners of war in various places in France and Germany, and who were cremated in accordance with their religion.