My father was a combat veteran of WWII campaigns in Europe and I’ve logged 35 years with the US Army both as a soldier on active duty and as an Army civilian (not a contractor) So, military monuments and cemeteries are of keen interest to me when visiting foreign locations. These photos are of my visit to the Cambridge American Cemetery which is the only permanent American World War II military cemetery in the British Isles.
The Portland stone Memorial Wall (above), containing the Tablets of the Missing, is 427 feet long and just under 12 feet tall The inscribed Wall of the Missing records the names of 5,127 missing servicemen, most of whom died in the Battle of the Atlantic or in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe. My photo was of the inscription on the Wall of Joseph Kennedy, Jr. who was a patrol bomber pilot and was lost at sea on August 12, 1944. He was being groomed to become the President of the United States by his father, Joe Sr. After Joe Jr’s death, that grooming fell upon his younger brother, John F. Kennedy. Also, Glenn Miller, the famous big band musician and bandleader is on the Wall after his plane disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel.
The cemetery contains 3,809 headstones, with the remains of 3,812 servicemen, including airmen who died over Europe and sailors from North Atlantic convoys. Each headstone is hand-washed three times each week.
(Me and the cemetery monument)
The cemetery was begun in 1943 and officially dedicated on July 16, 1956.
