Located a few kilometres to the south west of Avranches, this is the only German mausoleum type burial ground in France.
It contains the remains of 11,956 German and Hungarian servicemen killed during the battle for France.
While most of those here are from the local area and fell during Operation Cobra and the Allied breakout of Normandy in 1944, the site also contains those previously buried in field graves and cemeteries in west and central France areas such as Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, Mayenne, Sarthe, Loire-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, and Vienne.
There are also the bodies of soldiers who occupied the British Channel Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark interred here.
In 1954, the German Volksbund’s reburial service began to recover their war dead from provisional cemeteries and field graves and burials began here in 1961.
Mont de Huisnes cemetery was inaugurated on September 14, 1963, and stands on top of a 30m high hill overlooking the Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel - from the top of an observation platform on the northern side of the site you can see the famous Abbey and the unique layout of the cemetery.
Arranged over two levels, the circular mausoleum is 47 metres in diameter with a large granite cross standing centrally in the well-kept grounds.
There are 34 crypt chambers on each level with each with 180 graves in each, the names of the fallen marked on bronze tablets along with their rank, and dates of birth and death, where known.
Many tablets simply say, ‘Ein Deutcher Soldat’ and these represent soldiers who were unable to be identified.
A total of 160 of the bronze tablets have additional red, white, and green markings on them indicating they were Hungarian nationals serving in German units.
At the entrance there is a communal grave where 39 known and 58 unknown deceased – including 20 children – are buried.
The Cemetery site is maintained by volunteers and is kept immaculate as with the US and Commonwealth cemeteries in Normandy.