Here are some pictures of the American Military Cemetery in Cambridge... a site I did not know existed until last night when a local told me that I should stop in. Noone does, apparently. Sad.
This is another American Battlefields Monuments Commission cemetery, which covers a lot of the American losses prior to D-Day and for air-crews throughout the war. Much smaller than the Normandy cemeteries I visited last fall in headstones. But not in memorials. I think the pictures tell the story much better than my words.
The centerpiece. From this, the headstones radiate out. One of the interesting ways this monument is organized, is that aircrews are, where possible, buried together. In the positions that they held in the planes. Pilots, navigators, engineers, waist gunners, tail gunners.... laid to rest as they worked as a team. Amazing.
A fraction of the headstones. The sand is freshly laid and interrupts the green grounds. But part of constant maintenance by the Battlefield Monuments Commission.
One of a number of sculptures represented the fallen here. In this case a Navy or Merchant Marine gunner... holding a clip of Bofors rounds.
Here are buried Air Corps, Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine lost Americans, many of whom died before D-Day. And were interred in their training/assembly areas in Southern England.
This is one panel of names of those who are missing and/or lost without recovering their remains. There are about 70 names on each panel, vertically. Each panel is about 3 feet wide.
This is the wall on which the names of the lost are inscribed. It's about 150 yards long. At three feet wide per panel and 70 or so names per panel.
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The main inscription at the end of the wall.... that by my reckoning holds about 10,000 names. 10,000. Let that sink in. One cemetery. And tat's the MIA count.
Bomber crews, sailors, merchant marines, soldiers lost in training accidents at sea, fighter pilots... who never returned to England or America... and whose families never knew, for sure, what happened to their loved ones.
Shame more people don't visit here. I was alone for the hour plus I was there. Alone. It is a place more Americans should visit.
In greatest respect,
Sirhr
This is another American Battlefields Monuments Commission cemetery, which covers a lot of the American losses prior to D-Day and for air-crews throughout the war. Much smaller than the Normandy cemeteries I visited last fall in headstones. But not in memorials. I think the pictures tell the story much better than my words.
The centerpiece. From this, the headstones radiate out. One of the interesting ways this monument is organized, is that aircrews are, where possible, buried together. In the positions that they held in the planes. Pilots, navigators, engineers, waist gunners, tail gunners.... laid to rest as they worked as a team. Amazing.
A fraction of the headstones. The sand is freshly laid and interrupts the green grounds. But part of constant maintenance by the Battlefield Monuments Commission.
One of a number of sculptures represented the fallen here. In this case a Navy or Merchant Marine gunner... holding a clip of Bofors rounds.
Here are buried Air Corps, Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine lost Americans, many of whom died before D-Day. And were interred in their training/assembly areas in Southern England.
This is one panel of names of those who are missing and/or lost without recovering their remains. There are about 70 names on each panel, vertically. Each panel is about 3 feet wide.
This is the wall on which the names of the lost are inscribed. It's about 150 yards long. At three feet wide per panel and 70 or so names per panel.
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The main inscription at the end of the wall.... that by my reckoning holds about 10,000 names. 10,000. Let that sink in. One cemetery. And tat's the MIA count.
Bomber crews, sailors, merchant marines, soldiers lost in training accidents at sea, fighter pilots... who never returned to England or America... and whose families never knew, for sure, what happened to their loved ones.
Shame more people don't visit here. I was alone for the hour plus I was there. Alone. It is a place more Americans should visit.
In greatest respect,
Sirhr
