How long will we live? was the question a young Luftwaffe airman asked his diary, writing about his first mission over Northern England. Sacrificial lambs was his reply after that first mission. He was referring to the bombers being left at the mercy of the RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes, with no fighter cover of their own.During the Second World War, a substantial number of German Luftwaffe aircrew were killed in action whilst flying missions over Britain (in addition to a smaller number of Kriegsmarine crew killed in British waters). The bodies were recovered and buried in war grave plots in local cemeteries, maintained to this day by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

German War Graves in the North East and Cumbria is a richly illustrated guide to the graves of those German servicemen buried in Northumberland, Cumbria, Tyne and Wear, Durham, Cleveland and Yorkshire.