From MSN/AFP:
“British memorial opens in
France to remember D-Day fallen”
A memorial to almost 22,500
servicemen and women under British command killed during D-Day and subsequent
battles was unveiled in northern France on Sunday, a tribute to their sacrifice
seen as long overdue. The British Normandy Memorial, inscribed with the names
of 22,442 men and women who lost their lives during the invasion of
Nazi-occupied France in the summer of 1944, is situated on a hillside in the
Normandy village of Ver-sur-Mer. Opened on the 77th anniversary of the
landings, it overlooks Gold Beach, one of three beaches where British forces
landed on the morning of June 6, 1944 to begin the liberation of Western Europe
from Nazi occupation. "It is truly a memorial fit for heroes,"
British Ambassador to France Ed Llewellyn told guests at the memorial in sunny
weather. "A more tranquil and beautiful scene would be hard to
imagine." Llewellyn said he looked forward to visit the memorial again,
"not as ambassador, but as the father of three young Franco-British
children". Covid-19 restrictions prevented British survivors from
travelling to France for the event, but some 100 veterans were gathered at the
National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, UK, to watch the ceremony via
video link.
- 'Long overdue' - The
memorial -- built at a cost of £33 million ($47 million) met by both the UK
government and private donors -- is the first Normandy site commemorating those
who fell under British command. "The construction of a national
memorial in Normandy has been a long-held ambition of Normandy Veterans,
frustrated that Britain alone among the main wartime allies did not have such a
memorial," the Normandy Memorial Trust said in a statement ahead of the
ceremony. It consists of a series of 160 standing white stones where the
names of the soldiers who fell are inscribed in chronological order from June 6
to August 31, 1944. Some 4,000 tonnes of stone were used. The heir to
the British throne Prince Charles, in a video message broadcast at the
ceremony, described the memorial as "long overdue". "It has been
for many years a concern to me that the memory of these remarkable individuals
should be preserved for generations to come as an example of personal courage
and sacrifice," he said. "The memorial... will provide a place of
private and perpetual contemplation where visitors will be able to reflect on
what we owe to all those who so gallantly carried out their duty with such
extraordinary selflessness and resolve," Prince Charles added. Soldiers
from over three dozen nationalities, including from across the Commonwealth and
French resistance fighters, served under British command in the landings.
- 'A lot of research' - Steven
Dean, the manager of the project, said he hoped that the site could draw in a
quarter of a million visitors every year. "This is the only place
with all the names, so it took a lot of research to find the 22,442," he
told AFP. Until now, the main site of pilgrimage for paying respects to
those who died under British command has been the cemetery in the nearby town
of Bayeux. The American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, whose 10,000
graves overlook Omaha Beach, used to welcome some one million visitors annually
before the pandemic struck. The ceremony, attended by French Defence
Minister Florence Parly, had the added symbolism of highlighting historical
bonds between the cross-Channel neighbours in the wake of Britain's exit from
the European Union. The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated
to the memory of estimated 20,000 French civilians who died in Normandy as a
result of bombing and fighting. The June 6, 1944 landings by Allied forces on
five Normandy beaches were the biggest naval operation ever in terms of the
number of ships deployed and the troops involved. By the end of what became
known as "the longest day", 156,000 Allied troops and 20,000 vehicles
had landed in Nazi-occupied northern France despite facing a hail of bullets,
artillery and aircraft fire.
^ It’s great to see the British
(and French and others) continue to remember those that fought and died on D-Day
even after 77 years. ^
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