Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial

The Brittany American Cemetery is one of fourteen permanent American World War II military cemetery memorials erected by the American Battle Monuments Commission on foreign soil. The site was liberated on 2 August 1944 by the 8th Infantry Division; a temporary military cemetery was established on it three days later. After the war, when the temporary cemeteries were being disestablished by the American Graves Registration Service, the remains of American military Dead whose next of kin had requested interment on foreign soil were moved from the temporary cemeteries to one of the permanent cemetery sites, usually the one closest to the temporary location.

The 4,410 American military Dead buried in the Brittany American Cemetery lost their lives in the area of northwestern France extending from the beachhead westward to Brest and eastward to the Seine and represent 43 percent of the burials originally made in the region. They were interred there by the American Graves Registration Service in the distinctive grave patterns proposed by the cemetery's architect and approved by this Commission. Most of them died in the fighting in and around Saint-Lô.

The design and construction of all cemetery facilities in the permanent World War I and II cemeteries, were the responsibility of the American Battle Monuments Commission (i.e. the memorial, chapel, visitors’ building, superintendent's quarters, service facilities and paths, roads and walls). The Commission was also responsible for the sculpture, landscaping and other improvements. Construction of the permanent cemetery memorial at Brittany was completed in 1956.

The Memorial Chapel consists of an antechamber and tower, museum room and chancel. Typical of the ecclesiastical architecture of the region, it is Romanesque in design. The exterior of the memorial is constructed of local La Pyrie granite. At its east end is a sculpture group. 'Youth Triumphing Over Evil' designed by Lee Lawrie of Easton, Maryland and executed in Chauvigny limestone from the Poitiers region by Jean Juge of Paris.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

La Guinchere, Montjoie-Saint-Martin, France

Details

Founded: 1944
Category: Cemeteries, mausoleums and burial places in France