Reichswald Forest War Cemetery

Cemetery description

The British Commonwealth War Cemetery, bearing the official name ‘Reichswald Forest War Cemetery Cleves’ (on the white information boards that can be found in the cemetery), is located by the exit road that runs from the centre of Kleve.
The cemetery, designed by Philip Hepworth, was established after World War II, when the dead bodies of soldiers who fell in the western part of Germany were moved to this site. In accordance with the pattern characteristic of war cemeteries, this burial site is marked, in its centre, with two monuments - a stone cross with a brass sword - the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ and a rectangular stone - the ‘Stone of Remembrance’ bearing a biblical inscription that says: ‘Their name liveth for evermore.’ At the entrance stand two Moorish-style spires, where two books containing the names of the deceased can be found. On both sides of the entrance run narrow rows of identical headstones flush with the grass. Each soldier has his own headstone with his name inscribed upon it.
The cemetery is the final resting place and commemorates 7,594 soldiers from Britain, Canada - 706, Australia - 328, New Zealand - 127, Poland - 73, as well as representatives of other nations from South Africa, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA, Yugoslavia and Norway.
Almost all of the Poles buried here served in bomb squads - in 300 Masovia Land Squadron, 301 Bomb Squadron of the ‘Warsaw Defenders’, 304 Silesia Land Squadron and 305 Bomb Squadron of the Greater Poland Land.
This is the largest British Commonwealth cemetery in Germany.

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