Servicemen and women from the UK, from the wider Commonwealth and from Germany and Ukraine – together with local inhabitants of Hamburg – gathered at Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg on Thursday, 8 May 2025.
Led by Canon Colin Williams, they marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, commended those servicemen whose remains are interred there to God’s safe keeping and prayed for peace. Wreaths were laid by representatives of the UK and German Armed Forces. At the conclusion of this time of
prayer, the Last Post was sounded in honour of those whose sacrifice had made possible the end of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945.
Ohlsdorf Cemetery is the largest non-military cemetery in the world. Covering 389 hectares, the parklike cemetery is also Hamburg’s second largest green space. Among its many graves is a Commonwealth War Graves site containing more than 2,500 burials, mostly of British and Commonwealth servicemen who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The Second World War plot alone contains 1,466 burials, mostly of servicemen who died with the occupying forces, or airmen lost in bombing raids over Germany.