Fricourt is a village about 5 kilometres east of Albert. Fricourt Soldatenfriedhof is located just to the north of the village on the D 147 towards Contalmaison.
GPS | N | E | OSM |
---|---|---|---|
Decimal | 50.00434 | 2.71447 | Map |
The cemetery contains a total of 17,027 German dead from the First World War. There are 5 057 graves here, with each cross marking the grave of up to four soldiers. In 4 mass graves there are 11,970 soldiers, of whom 6 477 are unknown.
About a 1,000 of those lying here are from the early days of the war with 10,000 coming from the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The remainder date mostly from the German Spring Offensive of 1918.
For a time Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the famous pilot was buried here, in grave 1,177 (in the top right hand corner).
He was shot down by an Australian machine gunner near the brickworks on the Corbie ridge on 21st April 1918 (There is an information panel there to mark the area).
Initially buried with full military honours at Bertangles he was then moved here as a result of the concentration of German graves.
In November 1925 he was taken home to Berlin.
His grave is now owned by another soldier — Sebastian Paustian.