Neuville-Saint-Vaast German Military Cemetery “La Maison Blanche”
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Neuville-Saint-Vaast German cemetery is the largest German military cemetery in France for casualties of the First World War. There are 44,833 German casualties from the 1914-1918 war buried here.
After the war ended it was the French authorities who started the cemetery at this site. German dead were brought into the site from the area north and east of Arras between 1919 and 1923. Battlefield burials and soldiers buried in small cemeteries were exhumed and reburied here from more than 110 of the communities in the Departement Pas de Calais.
Most of the casualties buried here fell during the battles early in the war on the Loretto battlefield in Artois from August 1914 to the end of 1915, during the spring of 1917 on Vimy Ridge, and in the autumn of 1918.
In 1928 work was carried out at the cemetery by the German War Graves Agency, the Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge.
La Maison Blanche
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The cemetery is also known at “La Maison Blanche” after the name of a nearby farm known by that name on French and German Army WW1 maps.
Monument to the Hanovarian Infantry Regiment No. 164
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A stone memorial created by the men of the Hanovarian Infantry Regiment No. 164, and dedicated to their fallen comrades, was brought into the location of the military cemetery after the First World War.
Neuville St. Vaast German Military Cemetery Location
Latitude N 50° 20' 36 " ; Longitude E 2° 45' 7 "
The cemetery is located on the D937 Route de Béthune, south of the village of La Targette.
Access and Parking
The cemetery is open daily at all times.
There is parking for cars at the cemetery site.
Related Topic
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Find out about the formation of the organization which was formed to look after the German war graves after the First World War:
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK)
Acknowledgements
Voksbund Deutcher Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK). To find out more about the origins and the work of the German War Graves organisation visit the website:
Website: www.volksbund.de