Located on the cliff edge between Sangatte and Cap Blanc Nez lies a concrete wall which once surrounded a large WW2 German cemetery.
It stands in front of the remains Batterie Lindemann – once Germany’s flagship batterie in northern France and now a nature reserve created with the spoil from the Channel Tunnel excavations.
Established in 1941, prior to the construction of Lindemann, the cemetery was built by Organisation Todt, Hitler’s engineering and construction force.
This group were responsible for the construction of the massive gun batteries which dominated the landscape in this area, including Prinz Heinrich near Calais, and those further west – Batterie Grosser Kurfurst and Batterie Todt.
They were also responsible for the construction of bunkers and buildings used by the railway gun crews, initially located here in preparation for Operation Seelowe, the invasion of England, but then used to fire shells over the English Channel from France.
According to the inscription on a large stone block at the south west corner of the cemetery, it was built to a Kurz and Muller design.
The cemetery wall measures nearly 100m in length long and would have been over 50m wide, although the most seaward part of it has disappeared over the eroded cliffs onto the beach below.
At its centre you can still find a three metre diameter circular plinth which looks like it would have been the base for a large cross or memorial, but this concrete construction came much later.
It’s actually a capping stone which stands above an 88m deep shaft dug in 1878 during a survey to assess the viability of a tunnel under the channel. The shaft led to a tunnel extending out over 1,800 metres out to sea.
The opening of the shaft was originally said to have been dug around 450 metres from the cliffs, but since 1878 they have eroded and it now stands within 30 metres of the crumbling coastline.
Some of the stonework in the area was part of the surrounding buildings which supported the shaft, and there’s also a section of railway line which would have been used to remove material from the shaft and tunnel.
This particular shaft – one of four dug in the area – was abandoned in 1883 and the installations above it were demolished. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s when the shaft was filled and covered with a concrete slab.
There aren’t any records of those buried here, but are likely to have been Organisation Todt workers, officials, and possible soldiers from the early occupation years. When the cemetery closed, those buried here were moved to a cemetery in Lindern, Germany.