Midweek on the Totally Cider Tour to Normandy our first stop of the day was to tour the Brittany American Cemetery also referred to as the Saint James Cemetery.
It is located approximately an hour from Mont-Saint-Michel, 3.5 hours from Paris. It lies not in Brittany, but just north of the region in Normandy.
Photo: Sergeant C. Orton of The Highland Light Infantry of Canada drinking cider, France, 20 June 1944.
The cemetery is managed by:
- American Battle Monuments Commission - honors the services of overseas U.S. Armed Forces by maintaining and promoting America's overseas commemorative cemeteries and memorials.
- This commission was created in 1923 to commemorate US war dead.
The Cemetery overview
- 4,408 gravesite at this cemetery
- all men are bored at this cemetery
- only family members were buried together
- only cemetery constructed in a predetermined shape taken from the shoulder patch.
The tour at this cemetery was conducted by the superintendent of the cemetery Dave Bedford who said “Cemeteries are more than grass, hedges and tress. They are about guys buried here.”
The majority of people who visit the cemetery are French.
The cemetery land is owned by France, who has granted the US use of the land.
On the front of each headstone the following is listed for each solider.
- Name
- Rank
- Unit
- State where the solider entered military
- On the back of the headstone is the solider’s serial number
Also discussed in this chat
- Segregation of both Jewish and African American soldiers
- Totally Cider Tour | Normandy September 22nd - 28th, 2019
- We like Cider video on YouTube
- Episode 98: Jérôme Dupont