German Cemetery Le Cambe

Le Cambe is one of the two cemeteries in Normandy, the other is at Orglandes. The French Burial Department brought together all the scattered German war dead in the surrounding area, some of whom had been buried alone, others in small cemeteries, and reburied them in the vacated ground. The total number of German war dead lying here comes to 10,152.(Wiki)

 

Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge

The entrance on a very wet day in November 2016.

The large mound in the background is the resting place for 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers, interred together in a mass grave.

The layout of the graves.

Each stone is the resting place of between one to eight soldiers.

Wreaths laid out around the cemetery.

The different styles of headstones.

Lt. Karl Greishaber 4-5-15 + 14-8-44. OGEFR. Erich Loreck 16-12-10 + 6-6-44.

This group is around Michael Wittmann's stone. Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann was a very talented Tiger Tank commander. By August 1944 he had been fighting constantly for over two months and was effectively tired out. Driving across open fields advancing against the Canadians tanks on his front and British tanks on his right flank. Both the Canadian and British tanks were armed with 17pdr Sherman tanks at a rate of three to one with Sherman 75mm guns. The 17pdr was a very effective A/T gun equal to the 8.8cm that Wittmann and his colleagues had. Wittman's tank was hit be a combination of 17pdr and 75mm rounds from Sherman's hidden either behind solid walls and Bocage hedges.

Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class (EK II and EK I), – Knights Cross (Ritterkreuz), – Oakleaves to the Knights Cross (Eichenlaub), – Swords to the Knights Cross (Schwerter).

Above is a general layout of the attack put in by Wittmann's tiger tanks. He was asked to an orders group by his commanding officer, Panzer Meyer around 12:20 pm and he ordered Waldmuller and Wittmann to counter attack northwards with all available resources. Because his own vehicle was then being repaired he took command of 007. As I said earlier, he was very battle weary but complied to the orders possibly knowing he should not have attacked in that manner. The orders were to advance into the gap between the British and Canadian armies. The only trouble was, was that the two divisions were actually butting up against each other and he found he was driving a wedge against two now well trained and capable Sherman tank troops one of the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers and the other British 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry. Armed with an equal gun to the Tigers 8.8cm. and also in a defensive position. Witmann's and all the other three tanks were wiped out in minuets. After the battle some marauding Typhoon's fighter bombers came over and decided to rocket the the dead tigers, thus possibly expanding their own tank score considerably.

I believe there is one Oak tree planted for every dead German soldier in the cemetery.