War Graves of Portsmouth Men
Durnbach War Cemetery,
Germany

Location: Durnbach is a village 16 kilometres east of Bad Tolz, a town 48 kilometres south of Munich. Durnbach War Cemetery is 3 kilometres north of the village Gmund am Tegernsee. Using the A8 from Munich, turn off at the junction Holzkirchen, taking the 318 road in the direction of Gmund am Tegernsee. At the crossroads with the 472, turn left in the direction of Miesbach. The cemetery is situated approximately 500 metres on the left from the 318/472 crossroads.
 
Historical Information: The site for Durnbach War Cemetery was chosen, shortly after hostilities had ceased, by officers of the British Army and Air Force, in conjunction with officers of the American Occupation Forces in whose zone Durnbach lay. The great majority of those buried here are airmen shot down over Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Austria, Hessen and Thuringia, brought from their scattered graves by the Army Graves Service. The remainder are men who were killed while escaping from prisoner of war camps in the same areas, or who died towards the end of the War on forced marches from the camps to more remote areas.
 
DURNBACH WAR CEMETERY contains 2,933 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. One of the graves in the cemetery contains the ashes of an unknown number of unidentified war casualties, recovered from Flossenburg. There are also 29 war graves of other nationalities, most of them Polish. Within the Indian section of the cemetery will be found the DURNBACH CREMATION MEMORIAL, commemorating 23 servicemen of the army of undivided India who died while prisoners of war in various places in France and Germany, and who were cremated in accordance with their religion.
 

 
Further Information
Sergeant Edward Davison was the son of Edward Thomas Davison and Sarah Annie Davison.
 
He was flying in a Battle 1 of 218 Sqn P2201 HA- and took off at 2055 from Auberrive-sur-Suippes to reconnoitre the Rhine and to Nickel Darmstadt and Mainz. During the evening of 21 April Hamburg Radio announced that this aircraft had been shot down near Kreilsheim, Germany. Believed to have been the last Battle lost from the AASF prior to the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940.
 

 
Further Information
Son of Albert Arthur and May Clarke, of Mile End, Portsmouth.
 
Grave number: 8. H. 21.
 
Flt Sgt H.G.Clarke was flying as an air gunner in a mark III Lancaster LM482 KC-Q in an operation to bomb Kembs Dam. They took off at 1300 hrs from Woodhall Spa. Their Talboy bomb failed to release and the crew were seen to turn away and go round for a second run. Hit by flak and crashed at Efringen-Kirchen, a village just inside Germany and about 8 kms SSE of thetarget and an equal distance NNW from the Swiss town of Basel. All 8 of the crew are buried at Durnbach War Cemetery.
 
He had previosly been Mentioned in Despatches.

Further Information
Son of Frank and Margaret Grace; husband of Sylvia Maud Grace, of Fratton, Portsmouth.
 
Grave number: 3. C. 20.