Country: France

Locality: Calvados

Identified Casualties: 594

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Cemetery Location

St Desir is a village on the N13 to Caen, 4 kilometres west of Lisieux. The war cemetery is about one kilometre west of the village and lies on a secondary road, the D159.

Cemetery Information

The Allied offensive in north-western Europe began with the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. St Desir War Cemetery is the most easterly of the the Normandy cemeteries. For the most part, those buried here died in the final stages of the campaign, in pursuit of the German forces towards the Seine. The cemetery contains 597 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. 78 of these graves were brought in from Chartres (St Cheron) Communal Cemetery after the war, together with the four First World War burials now at St Desir.

WW2 Graves

The graves here are from the final operations in Normandy following the breakout at Falaise and leading up to the crossing of the River Seine. There are a large number of men from 51st (Highland) Division buried here.

The breakdown of graves is:

British - 569
Canadian - 16
Australian - 6
South African - 5
New Zealand - 1
United States - 1

WW1 - 4

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