Immediately after a combat area was secured, the grime task of recovering and burying the dead began. At Omaha Beach a cemetery was set up on the beach flat below the bluffs in the area between the St. Laurent and Vierville Draws. This site later became known as the 'First' American Cemetery.
American dead are collected for burial at this site below the bluffs at the beach, which became the 'First' American Cemetery.
Here the American dead from the first days of the battle where buried. It is believed that German dead from the beach strong-points were buried here as well.
Americans hold a ceremony at the 'First' American Cemetery.
This Cemetery would remain quietly at this site though the winter, as the war moved on and the activity of the summer of 1944 at Omaha Beach gave way to an empty ghostly abandoned beach of 1945.
Eventually this Cemetery site on the beach would be moved to the site further east above the bluffs where we now know it as the American Cemetery at Colleville.
The la Cambe Cemetery Site
As the fighting moved inland, another cemetery was created for the American dead further inland at la Combe, a village just off of highway N-13 west of Formigny. Mainly dead from the American 29th Division were buried here. By now Graves registration handled the details but the hard work of burial was done by German prisoners, now plentiful.
German prisoners digging American graves at the la Cambe cemetery site. The graves were marked by simple wood stakes, usually with a dog-tag nailed to the wood.
Elsewhere, Germans were buried in small improvised graves by their comrades, scattered through-out the Norman country-side.
A typical improvised German grave site, one of many though out the Norman country side. PHOTO-courtesy S. Bryant
Below: Frech List from the beginning of the 50ies. La Cambe is
still American
The New Cemeteries
In time it was decided to create a 'final resting place' that would become a memorial for the fallen American dead. It was decided to build this new American Cemetery on the bluffs, over looking the beach between Colleville and St Laurent. Here the American dead buried in various locations in the Omaha Beach area would be consolidated together in one final interment.
With the creating of the new cemetery, Graves Registation and German prisoners had the difficult task of exhuming, sorting and moving the bodies.
French civilians place flowers on the graves of fallen Americans. It is unclear if this photo was taken at la Combe or at the site of the second or new American Cemetery at Colleville on Omaha Beach.
When the new American Cemetery was set up above Omaha Beach near Colleville, the American dead at the la Combe Cemetery and those buried at the 'First' Cemetery down on the beach, were disinterred and brought to the new American Cemetery site for re-internment .
The 'New' American Cemetery above the beach. Soon the wooden crosses would be replaced by Italian white marble crosses as a part of a permanent landscaping effort.
This cemetery is today the famous American Cemetery at Omaha Beach which stands today as a memorial to the American fallen. Those who saw the movie Saving Private Ryan will recognize the site which was the location in the final scene of the movie.
The New Cemetries Take Form
The la Cambe site was now to become the German War Dead Cemetery. German dead buried at American cemetery sites and those found in small burials sites spread across the country side, were collected and brought together into a single cemetery at la Cambe.
As money became available, a great effort had been made in the design landscaping of both sites, out of respect for the dead and to create a garden setting in which visitors can come and contemplate the cost that the generation buried here paid for their duty to their respective nations.
The landscaping of the new American Cemetery begins to take shape.
The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach is noteworthy for their field of white Italian marble crosses. The land of the new American Cemetery was given to the United States by the French government and is now under American administration.
The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. PHOTO-S. Bryant
is distinctive in the dark rough cut stone crosses, creating a stark contrast between the two cemetery sites. It would become administered by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraeberfuersorge e.V. (German Society for War Graves Care) which is a private organization dedicated to the recovery of the German dead of all wars and their proper decent burial. Graves sites are cared fore by young volunteers from all over Europe.
Young volunteers maintain the German gave sites. PHOTO-V.D.K.
Perhaps the budget for the la Cambe site was less in the post war years, but most likely the design of the German Cemetery is layed out in the
unsophisicatedness
of
a country that lost a war.
The la Cambe German Cemetery. PHOTO- S. Bryant
The
Stones symbolize the the logo of the German "Volksbund"
A small megalithic structure may have served as the model for the crosses. These stones are shrouded in mystery. Though in the form of the cross, these monuments predate Christianity and go far back before the dawn of civilization.
Megalithic stones may have been the inspiration for the the design of the crosses at the German Cemetery at la Cambe. PHOTO- S. Bryant
Who built these megaliths, and why they were built is lost to history but they are part of the mythology of the origins of the German people and thus have special significance; representing the sacrifice which countless generations of Germans had to endure, going back to the dawn of their history.
The
British Cemetery at Bayeux
4,868 graves
1,837 missing
soldiers
An Imperfect World
The great administrative task of identifying and burying the dead has resulted in some odd errors, which once discovered are very hard to change.
The grave of Donald Myerly (110th Field Artillery)
has his death marked 24 of July. In fact Don was killed, along with 18 of his comrades, at the crossroads at Vierville on June7th. Despite the official record of the June7th incident and the formal testimony by his commanding officer who witnessed Don's death on June 7th, one will still find Donald Myerlys cross marking his death on 24 June 1944.
One day, a former American paratrooper visited the American Cemetery and to his surprise, he found his own grave. He checked and the serial number was his, but the body was not. He had a good idea who was buried there though. During the war he was taken prisoner. At that time, one of the Germans took his uniform and his Dog-tags, apparently to use to infiltrate into the American lines by pretending to be an American soldier.
Obviously this German was killed and when Graves Regitration found the body and American Dog-tag The German was buried with full honors at the American Cemetery. Today if you go to this grave you will be at the grave of an unknown German buried in the American Cemetery. He is perhaps the only German buried there, but then who really knows.
"Les
Fleurs de la Mémoire".
Recently
the Memorial Flowers society ("Les Fleurs de la Mémoire") was formed by French and American friends. Frank Towers, a WWII veteran from the American 30th Infantry Division is the current Executive Secretary of the society.
The mission of the society is to provide flowers to those graves which no longer have family members to remember their lost ones. Each French family adopts a grave site which that family now honors with flowers every year. This follows a memorial ceremony conducted by the society at the cemetery.
Members of the Les Fleurs de la Mémoire Society, moving to various 'adopted' grave sites to lay flowers. PHOTO- S. Bryant
June 2002 is when they launched their program. For more information one can visit their website:
Today, both the la Cambe and Colleville Cemetery sites, each in its own way, give silent testimony to the cost of war. Each grave marks the site of a future of possibilities never fulfilled. A British Cemetery inscription says it best "They sacrificed their futures so that we could have our future"
Beatrice and Marc Elie lay flowers as my friends Tim Roop and Partic Elie look on. As members of the Les Fleurs de la Mémoire, the Elie family have adopted this grave. PHOTO-S.Bryant
Perhaps the best tribute we can make to their sacrifice, is to ensure that in our time the peace and freedom they won is preserved and ensured for those generations yet unborn.
