The World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel in Colleville-sur Mer, France.
The Normandy American Cemetery has 9,387 burials of US service men and women. Of this number, some 307 are unknowns, three are Medal of Honour winners and four are women. In addition there are 33 pairs of brothers buried side by side.
Only some of the soldiers who died overseas are buried in the overseas American military cemeteries. When it came time for a permanent burial, the next of kin eligible to make decisions were asked if they wanted their loved ones repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S., or interred at the closest overseas cemetery.
A few days after the fighting had stopped General Eisenhower went to see the carnage for himself.
“I was conducted through it on foot to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. I was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh.
( From the book "A Traveller's Guide To D-Day and the Battle for Normandy" by Carl Shilleto and Mike Tolhurst
“I was conducted through it on foot to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. I was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh.
( From the book "A Traveller's Guide To D-Day and the Battle for Normandy" by Carl Shilleto and Mike Tolhurst
One of the many German gun fortifications that troops had to face while storming the beach head.
Cliffs populate vast areas along the beach-head with artillery, fortified machine gun dotting the top creating withering crossfire along with mines, barbed wire and other tools of war. The defences were formidable requiring great sacrifice to overcome.
Les Braves is an abstract monument on Omaha Beach that honors the Americans who liberated France. In the center, seven stainless steel columns rise from the sea. A group of five columns curves upwards, two columns stand upright the tallest reaching up 30 feet. An array of stainless steel wings flank both sides.
The sculpture was commissioned by the French government in 2004 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
