The military cemeteries of Normandy are a dramatic reminder of just how many people lost their lives on D-Day and the battles that followed it as the Allies began to liberate Europe. These solemn places, the lands of which have been given in perpetuity by the French people, are emotional and moving places to visit.
The scale of many of the cemeteries is a sad reminder of the human cost; that some have walls of remembrance for those denied a known and honoured grave only exacerbates the scale of loss incurred during Operation Overlord.
❝ When you go home, tell them of us and say. For your tomorrow, we gave our today ❞– John Maxwell Edmonds
A map showing the location of the cemeteries can be found at the end of the post.
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The cemetery contains 2,235 Commonwealth burials of WWII with 97 of those being unidentified. There are also 330 German graves and a few graves for other nationalities. In addition to the soldiers, the mascot of the 9th Bn Parachute Regiment, a dog named Glenn, is buried with his master, Private E.S. Corteil. The churchyard next door contains another 47 Commonwealth graves, one of which is unidentified and one German grave.
The church is worth a visit to view the stunning stain glass window that commemorates the attack with the words “In Memoriam 1944 6th Airborne Division”
Reviews of Ranville War Cemetery | 1 Rue du Comté Louis de Rohan Chabot, 14860 Ranville
The majority of those interred here are Canadian with 19 of them unidentified. Many were from the 3rd Canadian Division who died either on June 6th or in the few days following it, when the Division engaged in battle with the German 716th Division and the 21st Panzer Division. The cemetery also includes the graves of four British soldiers and one French resistance soldier who fought alongside the Canadian soldiers and had no known family. This cemetery commemorates the graves of nine sets of brothers.
Reviews of Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery | D35, 14470 Reviers
The Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth WWII cemetery in France and was completed in 1952. It contains 4,144 burials of Commonwealth soldiers with 338 of those unidentified. There are also 500 war graves of other nationalities with the majority of those being German. The grounds were given to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by France for the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of France.
The Bayeux Memorial stands just across the road from the cemetery and commemorates more than 1,800 men from the Commonwealth forces who died early in the fighting after the D-Day landings and have no known grave. The Latin epitaph along the front of the memorial is in reference to William the Conqueror and the Invasion of England in 1066. It reads: “We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land.”
The Allies began their offensive in this part of Europe with the D-Day landings along the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944. There wasn’t much actual fighting in the city of Bayeux but it was the first French town of importance to be liberated by the 50th British Infantry Division on June 7, 1944. As the troops moved through Bayeux from the landing beaches they ran into difficulties bringing the heavy equipment through the city. It was dangerous and very slow-moving so the British Army’s engineering department decided to build a big boulevard around the city. This became known as “the by-pass” and was the first ring road ever in France. The term and the road are still in use today.
Reviews of Bayeux War Cemetery | 1945 Boulevard Fabian Ware, 14400 Bayeux
Built on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach this cemetery is the resting place for 9,387 soldiers, 307 of whom are unknown.
On June 8, 1944, the US First Army established the first American cemetery on European soil in WWII. After the war, the current cemetery was established just a short distance from the original one. Like all other military cemeteries, France has granted the United States a special, perpetual concession to the land which means it’s free of any charge or tax.
Only some of the US soldiers who died in France are buried here because when it came time for a permanent burial the soldier’s next of kin were given the choice to have their loved ones repatriated for burial in the US or to let them rest in France.
In addition to the cemetery, there is a memorial at this site that commemorates the lives of 1,557 Americans who lost their lives in Normandy but could not be located or identified. At the centre of a semicircle of columns is a 22-foot bronze statue called ‘The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves’. In front of the memorial is a reflecting pool where visitors can watch the ceremony of the Lowering of the Colors that happens at the end of each afternoon to the sound of a military hymn.
Reviews of the Normandy American Cemetery | 14710 Colleville-sur-Mer
La Cambe is home to the German military cemetery and Peace Garden. Even though the soldiers lying here were the “enemy” they are, still, fellow human beings. Many of them were very young, did not ask to go to war, and were someone’s father, husband, brother, or son.
In the centre of the cemetery is a large mound of earth that covers the common grave of 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers. At the very top is a large dark cross with a statue on either side made of basalt lava. This is then surrounded by 49 rectangular grave fields with up to 400 graves each, identified with flat grave markers. All total there are 21,139 fallen German soldiers laid to rest in this cemetery.
The sign in front of the cemetery reads as follows:
The German Cemetery at La Cambe: In the Same Soil of France
Until 1947, this was an American cemetery. The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German since 1948 and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers, not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.
The German War Graves Commission cares for their cemeteries as well as the Commonwealth War Graves Commissions do and this cemetery is a sombre and peaceful place of rest.
Reviews of La Cambe German War Cemetery | Les Noires Terres, 14230 La Cambe
FOR THE FALLEN
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Laurence Binyon
RESOURCES | PLAN YOUR TRIP TO NORMANDY
- Rick Steves’ ‘Normandy TV show‘ episode
These are a few tours we would recommend for your trip to Normandy.
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