In July I was lucky enough to go on a staff ride to france witht eh RAF. One of the things we looked at was the German cemetry at Maringy, Normandy. What caught me was the stark difference in design of the cemetries of Britain, America and Germany. To some extent I think they represent there viewing on the war. I have put a post of this on my blog: Thoughts on Military History: Military Cemetries Take a read and let see what your thoughts are ont his. Ross
Yet to visit an American cemetery so can't really comment, but from your photos then yes, it looks very triumphilist - almost Imperialistic. However I found a stark difference between the Britsh/Commonwealth graveyards and the German cemetery at Cannock chase. I found the British graves, even if it is just one in a provincial churchyard, to be peaceful, almost as if to say we fought, we didn't want to but it had to be done. And now we can rest. Whereas the German cemetery was dark. Very sombre as if they accept that the fault was their's, we fought hard and now its over. Let it stay in the shadows of the past. Yet there was still that sense of peace, of the fighting over and now they can rest. There is always a sense of peace around war graves, because the worst is over and gone.
