11th November 2026: Horsham

The Orglandes War Cemetery is the final resting place for German servicemen, killed during the Battle for Normandy in 1944. I visited on a damp, overcast autumn morning many years ago. I moved by the sheer number of brown crosses marking the graves of the dead in this well manicured meadow in France. As I walked along the rows of crosses, I noticed that each carried the names of not one, not two, but three fallen soldiers.

In that instant, the number of graves was multiplied.

A few minutes later, as I walked back along the row, I noticed  that on the reverse of each cross were three more names.

On many of the stones there were no names. Just the words, ‘Ein Deutscher Soldat’. A German soldier.

Six soldiers. One stone. No names.

On the same day, I visited another cemetery where hundreds of British soldiers from the same battle had been laid to rest.  In the visitors book. ‘This,’ someone had written, ‘will never happen again.’

The optimism which inspired that comment has rarely felt more fragile.

Take nothing for granted.

Keep praying.

Richard Jackson: Horsham, West Sussex

The Orglandes War Cemetery is about 25 miles south of the port of Cherbourg on the D24. It is the final resting place of 10,152 German servicemen.