Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof 1939 - 1945 Orglandes

After US troops had cut off the Contentin peninsula by forming a bridgehead near St. Mère-Eglise in June 1944, they continued their advance via Valognes towards Cherbourg in the north. The soldiers who died in these battles were buried in Orglandes. The village is less than 25 kilometers from Utah Beach, the almost five-kilometer stretch of coast where the Allies landed in Normandy. After 1945, only the German cemetery with 7,358 dead remained here, while the American fallen were reburied in St. Laurent-sur-Mère. The French burial service filled the vacated areas with German fallen from field graves and smaller sites in the surrounding area. in 1958, the Volksbund began gardening and construction work on the site. The cemetery was inaugurated on September 20, 1961.

Initially, the battlefield casualties from both sides were buried at a temporary cemetery in Orglandes. After the war, the American fallen were re-interred at permanent sites like the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer (St. Laurent). The French burial service then concentrated thousands of scattered German field graves into the vacated plots at Orglandes. Today, it holds over 10,150 German soldiers.