Originally Posted by
Vendee
That's the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. It is an emotional place but its also a very tranquil and serene place. It's beautifully maintained, as it should be.
I made a few private visits there but also volunteered to attend a formal event during my squadron's 75th anniversary (XV Squadron). Quite a few former members came over to Laarbruch for the weekend. There was a big hangar party on the Saturday night and on the Sunday morning, those that were not too hung over turned out at the Reichwald for a ceremony.
There are about a dozen or so XV Sqn aircrew buried at the Reichwald so each of those graves was marked by a current squadron member of the same rank, standing behind the headstone. It was a beautiful spring morning and a very, very emotional occasion.
A Reichwald visit was my first to a large war cemetery. Writing about it now has raised the goosebumps some 30 years on, it was the lack of bird song, once I realised it, that put a shiver down my spine....