Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, Normandy, France

 [visited 24 September 2006]

Set in an exceptionally bucolic location just a few miles east of bayeux the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery is set down amidst lush fields and rolling hills. Hard to image that so much horror and suffering once took place near here.

While the American cemeteries are dramatically laid out and generate a feeling of awe in the visitor, the Commonwealth policy was to permit every buried soldier’s family the opportunity to express their final sentiments on the headstone. We felt the policy very civilized and a poignant gesture of respect. 

Maintained by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

British Cemetery, Bayeux, Normandy, France

 [visited 23 September 2006]

Located just across from the Normandy Battle Museum (the large tank out front is a giveaway that a museum is close by) the Bayeux War  Cemetery is a wonderful example of the intimacy of Commonwealth war cemeteries. 

Maintained by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, Belgium

[visited 20 September 2016]

Like so many of the over 400 UK Commonwealth cemeteries along the Somme this one was opened right on the battlefield itself. In fact, you can see the remains of a bunker at the very center of the cemetery beneath the flagpole. 

It is also one of four Commonwealth memorials to the missing in Belgium: 11,961 known burials and another 8,373 graves are listed as unknowns; another 35,000 names of soldiers whose graves are unknown are inscribed on the wall that sweeps around the cemetery.

Tyne Cot Cemetery. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

the Australian memorial

Inside this structure is the blockhouse captured by the Australian 3rd Division 4 October 1917.