Kriegsgräberstätte: Mont d'Huisnes - Bau, Pflege und Instandsetzung

Mont d'Huisnes

Directions

This war cemetery is located in the southern tip of the Manche department, close to the border with Brittany. Where the coast turns from north to west at Avranches and forms the bay of Mont St. Michel, the village of Huisnes is located about 1 km south of the road that leads almost directly along the coast from Avranches to Mont St. Michel. A few hundred meters east of the village of Huisnes is the German military cemetery on a hill, from where the view extends over the coast and sea to Mont St. Michel (4 km as the crow flies, road from the cemetery to Mont St. Michel approx. 8 km). The exact address of the cemetery is: Cimitiere Militaire Allemand, 1 rue Mont de Huisnes, 50170 Huisnes sur mer

More than 6,000 fallen soldiers are buried in the only German mausoleum in France at the Mont d'Huisnes war cemetery. The memorial is located in Normandy.

Cemetery description

The German war cemetery is located within a 30 meter high hill, one kilometer north of the small community of Huisnes-sur-Mer in Normandy. The resting place is the only German mausoleum in France. The tomb is a circular two-storey building with a diameter of around 47 meters.

Inside the complex, there is an open circular path on both the ground and upper floors. There are 34 crypts on each of the two floors, each containing 180 dead. Their names are inscribed on a bronze plaque. A high cross rises up in the middle of the lawn-covered inner courtyard. In a common grave between the vestibule and the crypts, 39 known and 58 unknown dead of the Second World War are buried, including 20 children.

Occupancy

11,956 fallen soldiers of the Second World War are buried on the site. Most of them were reburied from the departments of Morbihan, llleet-Vilaine, Mayenne, Sarthe, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Vienne and Indre as well as from the Channel Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Aldernay and Sark.

History

Near Avranches, less than 20 kilometers from Huisnes-sur-Mer, the US Army launched Operation Cobra on 25 July 1944. The offensive made a decisive contribution to breaking through the German defensive front.

The Huisnes-sur-Mer memorial was inaugurated on September 14, 1963. In spring 2012, it received a 16-metre-long and 1.50-metre-wide ramp for the disabled between the entrance and crypt buildings. The toilet facility was equipped with a disabled toilet and has been barrier-free from the entrance building ever since. The facility will be renovated in 2021 and 2022 due to moisture damage and cracks in the concrete parts.

Special feature

From a viewing platform on the war cemetery, you can see the Mont-Saint-Michel monastery hill in the Wadden Sea. Together with the bay, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The rocky island is about one kilometer from the coast.