American Veterans, D-Day events in Normandy 2009

Visiting the website provided by Phil Flowers of Remembrance, will tug at your heart--thank you for that, Phil.A photo of the sculpture, The Spirit of American Youth Rising From The Waves, on the home page.And this quote from the site:"This association is created to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers, sailors and airmen buried in the American Cemeteries of Colleville-sur-Mer and Saint James in Normandy ( France ), by placing flowers on their tombs.Preamble :Peace is precious and it has a price, it is an effort, always it is of blood, and too often its price is paid by men's lives. The peace we know in Normandy and France was paid for by the sacrifice of the young lives of Allied soldiers.In the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer there are 10,944 brave Americans remembered; in the American Cemetery in Saint James the markers of 4,908 Americans remind us of the supreme sacrifice paid for France's liberation from the yoke of the Nazis. Today we know the liberty and happiness of freedom. We can never forget those that are buried in our country. Two generations have passed that do not know the horrors of war."The same should be said for the Canadian young men who gave the last full measure of devotion in France; and for the British and all the others who died in the tragedy that was WW2. The many German war cemeteries in Normandy are a reminder that they, too, made the ultimate sacrifice.

Merci, Phil. We actually will be leaving Bayeux for Paris on the 31 May but I would imagine that the anticipation of the celebrations will be quite exciting too, non? I am disappointed that we will be missing the actual celebrations but it could not be helped. Thank you for the great site.

Thanks to you, Darcy - nice to know I'm not just talking to myself! If you do hear of any other events, any time this year, please let me know.

Very best wishes

Phil

Phil, what a wonderful thing for you to do. Although I cannot be there, I will be fascinated to browse all your listed events as I recall the many wonderful and poignant places in Normandy we visited last summer. We will be there in our hearts. Merci.

Phil: Good website! I bookmarked it for further reference. I don't know of any events that aren't already on your list.But I wondered if you knew the answer to this question:When I was in the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach several years ago, I was touched by a memorial with inscription that said something like this: "A grateful French nation thanks the Mothers of America for the sacrifice of their sons on this beach in June 1944." There were fresh flowers on the memorial, which I understood were delivered every morning by the French government. I don't remember whether the words were in English or in French and I translated them in my mind.I did not get a photo of this particular memorial, have done an internet search, but nothing comes up. Did I imagine this or does such a memorial inscription actually exist in the American Cemetery?

Thanks Sharon, thanks Kent.

I've visited the American Cemetery on a couple of occasions in the last 3 years and I confess to having missed the particular memorial to which Kent refers.

However, I will keep my eyes peeled on our next visit - any clues as to its whereabouts? Or is your memory as unreliable as mine? LOL.

Phil: My recollection is that it was in the general area of the sculpture titled The Spirit of American Youth Rising From The Waves.

I shall look on my next visit, Kent.

There is also an association dedicated to laying flowers on the graves of those who gave their lives and keeping their memory alive among young French people by arranging school visits etc. to the cemeteries.

The association is called Fleurs de la Mémoire

Oh, my goodness, yes, so touching. Thanks for sharing.

Wonderful site and great information Phil. Wish I could be there in May or June but will be there in Sept. Thanks for all the info and the time spent.

I've had a reply from the association "Normandie Mémoire" regarding the "private" medal ceremonies for American and other Allied forces Veterans. I asked for confirmation if there were going to be such ceremonies, how they were organised, and for clarification on "private".

As follows:

Dear Phil,

Yes, that there will be individual medal giving ceremonies for Allied Forces Veterans of D-Day this year.

Yes, the veterans have to contact the Maire of individual towns to arrange a “private ceremony”. Of course, those ceremonies are not closed to the public. The veterans and their families are just beginning to contact the mairies so there is not yet a list of the different ceremonies that will be set up. The simpler for you if you want to attend to one of them is to contact the mairie of the town where you would like to go, and ask them the different dates of planned ceremonies. But you would better wait for one month or two before getting an answer, I’m sorry.

There are to be two “public”/”official” medal ceremonies:

• June the 5th at Collevilles-Montgomery
• June the 6th at Arromanches.

I hope you will find here what you wanted to know. But when there are some other questions don't hesitate to contact us again.

Best regards,

Anne-Céline Morand

Normandie mémoire
88, rue Saint Martin
14000 CAEN

Tel. : 02 31 94 80 26
Fax : 02 31 94 84 97

Very interesting web site, thank you for all your work. We were in Normandy two years ago and will be back in the future. My grandfather (a Canadian lieutenant-colonel) was killed in action in France in WW1 and is buried in Heudicourt. I am the only relative to ever visit his grave site (a very moving experience) and ever since then I have been very interested in WW1 & 2 sites in Europe. Also found lots of info on my father's WW2 troop advancement from North Africa through Italy, at the Juno Beach Centre.