The other major event during the month has been a trip to see the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. The silhouettes would only be there until the end of the month. Readers could do no better than to visit the website at https://www.britishnormandymemorial.org/ .
 |
| Click to enlarge |
This image shows the Memorial which is in the form of avenues of columns each recording the names of 22,442 British service personnel who died during D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. In the foreground are just some of the 1,475 silhouettes which represent those who died on D-Day itself.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
I had the very great privilege to be able to walk amongst the silhouettes and to take this picture looking up to the memorial.
Having visited the Memorial we also took the opportunity to visit the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Bayeux. This cemetery, the largest CWGC cemetery in France, contains 4,649 graves of servicemen who fell during Operation Overlord. There is also a Memorial to the Missing which commemorates the over 1,800 servicemen who have no known grave.
Margaret and I only planned to be in France for the one day and so travelled over on the night sailing of the Portsmouth-Caen ferry returning on the evening sailing. Sadly the handling of vehicles at both ports was utterly hopeless with very extended queues.
Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve
Martin Luther King
Keep well
Stephen
