As Americans, it is important we do not forget our history. It is of particular importance that we do not forget those who sacrificed everything for us. The United States Cemetery in Normandy, France is the perfect place to pay your respects and remember those that fought evil tyranny so that we would not have to. Here lie the remains of almost 10,000 service members who along with brave British, Canadian, and free French forces, fought in June of 1944 to make the world a better place.

On June 6, 1944 the Allies invaded German occupied France. This was the largest seaborne invasion ever with over 850,000 troops crossing the English Channel by the end of that month. It began the night before with British gliders and American Airborne units of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions and a massive naval barrage that culminated in the amphibious assault all along the coast of Normandy. This assault was led by U.S, British and Canadian Forces. The landings took place along sections of coastline, code named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. Omaha was the bloodiest of these assaults with approximately 3,000 casualties.

Atop the steep cliffs of Omaha beach lies 172.5 acres of land permanently given to the United States government by the French in their appreciation for the sacrifices made during the war. The beauty of this shoreline is unmistakable, but I found myself not really noticing the scenery as much as just trying to imagine how it was on that day in June of 1944.

Getting There
My family and I arrived by rental car to the Cemetery after leaving from Brugge, Belgium early in the morning during the middle of March 2008. I had a good idea where I was going from all my little guide books and there was a GPS in the car, so how could I go wrong. Where to begin…

French roads are not exactly like roads here in the United States. Most of the freeways I experienced are toll roads in France. These are a great way to get around, although it is annoying to constantly pay a toll, especially with the current exchange rate. Unfortunately, there are no highways anywhere around the American Cemetery. If you drive, you can expect little narrow roads that wind their way through small French villages. It would have been picturesque if I had the nerve to look anywhere but straight ahead. This also made it quite difficult to see all the little signs leading me to the cemetery. I had the GPS to fall back on though, right? The GPS apparently was made for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, as it forever wanted me to drive through buildings and across fields. My recommendation here is to take one of the tours leaving Paris, or even the towns of Bayeux or Caen. I will never know how much I missed because I had to focus on the roads so much.

Upon arriving there was abundant parking, all of which was free. The parking lot was surrounded by Hedgerows, which are all over this area of France. For those of you familiar with the history of the invasion, there were more than a few complaints from allied soldiers about the difficulties presented by these large stands of bushes. There were more people here than I expected on a weekday in March, but most of these were French and British school children on field trips. We exited our vehicle and walked up to the visitor center / museum.

The Visitor Center
The visitor center and cemetery itself are open everyday of the year except Christmas and New Years day from 9am to 5pm. The visitor center is located on the left as you exit the parking lot. Upon entering the visitor center, we were warmly greeted in English by a French woman from the cemetery staff. There are several pamphlets and a visitor book here that we signed, but the real reason to come into this building is for the museum downstairs.

Going down the stairs into the museum was like traveling back into time. We were immediately met with the sound of FDR giving one of his many impassioned speeches from one of the videos playing nearby. There is a theater off to the right as you come down the stairs. I recommend watching the amazing movie inside. The movie puts faces on some of the many grave markers in the cemetery and I will freely admit to being a little choked up watching the interviews of mothers whose sons never returned from France. The rest of the downstairs consists of videos playing in an endless loop and pieces of equipment and individual stories of soldiers who fought during the invasion. It is a very small museum, but it is essential to the visit and please go here before venturing onto the grounds of the cemetery.



The Memorial and Gardens
After leaving the visitor center we followed the path out and headed left towards the memorial. We approached the rear of the memorial through the Garden of the Missing. In this beautiful rose garden are stone tablets engraved with the names of 1,557 service members whose remains were never recovered, or if they were, they were not identified. Above the names, engraved in the wall is the following inscription in English and French:

Here are the names of Americans who gave their
lives in the service of their country and who sleep
in unknown graves.
This is their memorial.

We walked past this solemn garden and up several steps onto the site of the memorial itself and my heart leapt into my throat.

The Memorial
I walked onto the memorial and was dumbstruck by the view. An ocean of white marble Crosses and Stars of David surround a small chapel in the middle of the cemetery. This is where it really hit me that I was standing in a place that was sacred and so much larger than me. I was standing in the presence of a place where young men, many not much more than boys fought and died and many of those men never left this place. Their blood was spilled on some of the very ground I was walking on.

The Memorial itself is a semicircular colonnade of limestone with maps of the invasion painted on its inner walls. The walls surround a granite pedestal which holds a 22’ statue of a man reaching towards the sky. The granite pedestal reads “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”. The statue overlooks a reflecting pool and a center pathway through the cemetery and onto the chapel in the middle of the grounds. There were many inscriptions and small sculptures here that I am not mentioning and I hope that you can forgive me for leaving them out in the name of brevity.

The Cemetery

Row after row of white marble Crosses and Stars of David mark the last resting place of 9,387 service members. Three Medal of Honor recipients and four female service members are included in this number. Each marker is inscribed with a name, rank and the date of their passing. There are no words to describe the overwhelming feelings that overtook me while walking down the center aisle of the graves of all these American heroes. Of note here is that the grounds are immaculate. The perfect maintenance of the grounds is a further tribute to these individuals.

We slowly walked down the center aisle towards the chapel at the heart of the cemetery. I found myself looking at names on the markers and trying to picture each one as a young man with a mother and perhaps a wife, who they never were able to come home to. It was truly a solemn experience.

The Chapel
In the heart of the cemetery lies the chapel. It is a small circular building constructed of Limestone. On the outside wall of the chapel is the inscription:
THIS CHAPEL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF HER SONS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE LANDINGS ON THE NORMANDY BEACHES AND IN THE LIBERATION OF NORTHERN FRANCE. THEIR GRAVES ARE THE PERMANENT AND VISIBLE SYMBOL OF THEIR HEROIC DEVOTION AND THEIR SACRIFICE IN THE COMMON CAUSE OF HUMANITY

This small chapel is a somber place meant as a place to reflect on all the sacrifices made for all of us. The inside of the chapel consists of a large marble altar. A tall window made of with an amber hue illuminates the room. There are 48 stars on the outside edges of this glass representing the then 48 states. Make sure when you enter here to look up to the ceiling. A beautiful mosaic encompasses the ceiling a woman reaching out to touch the outstretched hand of a young man. The woman represents the United States bidding farewell to her sons as the leave to fight for freedom.

We left the chapel and headed down the path towards the cliffs and the beach. An already emotionally draining day would become more so upon looking at these rocky cliffs.

The Beach
Looking at the beach you realize what a monumental task that these young men faced. They had to cross hundreds of yards of open sandy beaches, filled with obstacles, to even get to the cliffs. The cliffs themselves were covered in vegetation, much of which was briars and simply too thick to walk through. There is a path that leads down to the beach that I highly recommend. Even with the assistance of steps and a concrete path, I was winded on the trip back up. Walking on the beach, the same beach where so much blood was spilled by our soldiers, was beyond words.

From the beach, there are several places you can walk onto the cliffs and actually walk into one of the German pillboxes. Here I looked down and saw some of what the German soldiers saw that day. I tried to picture the hundreds, if not thousands, of ships and boats that dotted the English Channel and the thousands and thousands of soldiers landing on the beaches. It is an experience I will never forget.

Closing
As I mentioned earlier, if had it to do over, I would take a tour. This would ensure a more pleasant trip and spare the anxiety related to windy French roads. I also would have spent more time here than I did. There are hotels in Bayuex and Caen that are a short distance away that would have allowed me to visit more of the sites, including the British Cemetery and many of the museums in the area.

If I had gone nowhere else in Europe other than the American Cemetery at Normandy, my trip would have been worth it. Although I have tried to put the experience into words, my ability as a writer does not allow me to do so as well as I would like. The grounds are spectacular and well maintained and I found the employees of the cemetery more than helpful. It is a solemn place, but that does not mean you should not bring your children. I would like to think in some way I passed on to my 10 year old daughter some respect and admiration for what those brave men did on that fateful day in June and what our soldiers are still doing today.

This review has been submitted to ifif1938's French and English write off.

Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime