Britons killed in the D-Day landings are to be remembered with a special monument that the Government is to contribute £20m towards. The memorial to those who died in the Normandy campaign will be erected at the site of fierce fighting which took place during and after the Allied landings in France in 1944. Read more D-Day memorial to honour British dead
Is it just me, or does it seem a bit superfluous? And I wonder which 'site of fierce fighting' they have in mind?
"Located close by the beaches where they began the liberation of Europe, the Normandy Memorial will be a fitting tribute to them and a place where people can gather to reflect on their extraordinary achievements. Britons killed in the D-Day landings are to be remembered with a special monument that the Government is to contribute £20m towards. The memorial to those who died in the Normandy campaign will be erected at the site of fierce fighting which took place during and after the Allied landings in France in 1944. The monument will be unveiled on 6 June, 2019 - the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It will carry the names of the estimated 21,000 members of the British armed forces and Merchant Navy, as well as those from other nations who fought alongside them, who lost their lives in the campaign. D-Day memorial to honour British dead
from BBC The memorial for those who died in the Normandy campaign will be unveiled in the French region on the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019. The memorial will pay tribute to several thousand sailors and airmen who were lost at sea, and those who died from their wounds after being brought back to the UK for treatment. The United States and Canada both have D-Day memorials. D-Day memorial to remember fallen servicemen - BBC News
An ideal spot, the land appears available, would be at the top of the cliffs near Asnelles and Arromanches overlooking the beaches but why inscribe the names? What about those who died in the rest of the campaign? What about many others? The Normandy campaign names are already on headstones and memorials, such as the Bayeux Memorial. I don't want to appear disrespectful but hopefully they have thought this one through. Have I missed something?
This whole thing is a nice idea, but practically speaking a waste of time and effort. Construct a memorial in Blighty to all war dead for £20m, but focusing on 6 June and ignoring the rest of the campaign is just stupid. If we assume it is to commemorate the dead... this gets obscene. Assuming it commemorates 1,914 non-American dead. This equates to around £10,500 per casualty. £10,500.
Read it again! The government's contributing £20m, so the total cost is bound to be double that at least, probably way more if MoD are in any way involved! The money might be better spent providing more context to existing cemeteries, but exactly how you pitch that amongst the existing commercial museums, I don't know. The sad thing is that the measure of success will be 'how much it's like the St Laurent cemetery', though I may be being a bit harsh having only ever been there at peak holidays...
Bung such bonus cash, if such cash is available, to things like Headley Court, SSAFA etc. There are living people, along with their nearest and dearest, enduring real issues left over from service.
£20 million contribution, appears to mean it will cost a lot more. Surely a memorial to all those who fought would be better and a whole lot cheaper. Makes you wonder what sort of memorial they are planning!!!.
Mrs May and the French president are attending an inauguration ceremony for a memorial to honour the British troops who died in the Battle of Normandy. May and Macron mark D-Day anniversary
I tried to visit the site yesterday but it's up a 'no entry' road (conveniently). OK, I know it will be a building site but you would have thought a couple of days of being open to Joe Public would have been appropriate at the present time. NB: hopefully I'm wrong and I just missed the obvious.
Having just returned from a week in Normandy it seems the memorial wasn't open to the public. By chance we met someone connected with it who invited us along for a visit. On the Friday and Saturday they were interviewing veterans at the site. We went on the Saturday as on the Friday we were booked in to see the Dakotas at Carpiquet (bit of a disappointment - very windy and not much happening; communications poor; traffic a nightmare). We saw a couple of veterans at the memorial in the hour or so we were there, but I'm not sure who they were. The Band of the Yorkshire Regiment were on site and they played some good pieces. We thought the sculpture looked excellent and a lot of thought has gone into it. The location of the site is a very good choice. On the morning we were there with the ever changing cloud formations in the distance it looked dramatic with the backdrop. It's a bit sad that this is happening now when so many of the old boys who stormed the beaches have passed away. But it's a positive thing and people who go there in the future will hopefully understand the enormity of what happened there. I'll upload some images soon if members would like to see them.
Close up of the image of one of the two veterans who arrived whilst we were there. Not sure who this chap was but he was in the Green Howards and landed on Gold Beach. He had his 22nd birthday in Normandy.
A few other images taken in the week: Bayeux cemetery service: Prince Charles arriving, Arromanche service: Lord Dannatt and Montgomery's grandson talking to veterans who didn't want to sit at the front; Working floatation skirt on a tank at Arromanche square; Sannerville parachute drop; American cemetery; Dan Snow at Bayeux cemetery service; Standard bearers at Arromanche service; ATC at Arromanche service ( large number of them there); Memorial garden on the Arromanche cliffs.
Grave of Freddy Harris at the Canadian cemetery Beny Sur Mer. Freddie Harris and British soldier Cyril Crain became friends before they left England for D.Day. On landing Freddy died and Cyril survived. Cyril wrote many pieces of verse, one called 'My Buddy' in remembrance of his friend. Cyril's poems are to be found in the Portsmouth museum. In more recent years his words have been used in the Remembrance Services, as they were this year at Bayeux cathedral. At the Juno Beach visitor centre they have now been put into post card form. Cyril died a couple of years back and his ashes were returned to Normandy
Cyril Crain in Normandy with the POW in 2014 at the D.Day commemorations. And as mentioned above a couple of the poems on post cards.