Remembrance

St Désir-de-Liseux is the smallest second world war German war cemetery in the Normandy region. Beneath the red sandstone crosses are the graves of 3,735 German soldiers, many from the 15th Army, 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army. The majority of soldiers here were killed in the last days of the Battle of Normandy, during the German retreat towards the Seine in August 1944, and were buried by the British Graves Service. The remains of German fighter ace Egon Mayer lie at St Désir. Meyer was responsible for 102 kills during 353 missions over the western front, including 26 four-engined bombers, 51 Spitfires and 12 P47 Thundebolts.


A footpath leads  to the adjacent British war cemetery of the same name. As the extra photograph shows the difference in mood of the British and German cemeteries is very striking. There are 598 Commonwealth burials of which 78 graves were reinterred from Chartres (St Cheron) Communal Cemetery after the war, together with the four First World War burials. There are a large number of soldiers from the Scottish 51st (Highland) Division buried at St. Desir. They include Douglas Murray, aged 25, from Colliestion, a village just up the road from where we live.