| British Normandy Memorial | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
 | |
| For the British dead of theNormandy landings | |
| Location | |
| Designed by |
|
| Commemorated | 22,442 |
TheBritish Normandy Memorial is awar memorial near the village ofVer-sur-Mer inNormandy,France. It was unveiled on 6 June 2021, the 77th anniversary ofD-Day, and it is dedicated to soldiers who died under British command during theNormandy landings.[a]
The memorial records the names of 22,442 people from more than 30 countries under British command who were killed in Normandy from 6 June to 31 August 1944 .[1]
TheNormandy landings began just after midnight on 6 June 1944, with a glider assault tocapture the Caen canal and Orne river bridges.[2]
US forces began landings onUtah andOmaha Beaches at about 06:30. About an hour later, due to different tide conditions along the coast, British and Canadian forces landed onGold,Juno andSword Beaches, fromPort-en-Bessin in the west toOuistreham in the east.Ver-sur-Mer lies at the eastern end of King Sector of Gold Beach, near its border with the west edge of Juno Beach, on the road inland from the landing site around La Rivière toCrépon.
In July 2015, George Batts, a veteran of the Normandy landings, met with BBC journalistNicholas Witchell. Batts pointed out that the United Kingdom was the only major Allied nation without a dedicated memorial in Normandy. The Normandy Memorial Trust was set up after their meeting.[3]
Construction of the memorial cost 30,000,000pounds sterling, of which £20 million was funded by the British government using proceeds from fines levied after theLibor scandal,[4] and £10 million by private donations.[1][3]
About 18 ha (44 acres) of land for the memorial was acquired on a hill to the west of Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, and permission for the memorial sought from French authorities in 2017 and 2018. The site was formally inaugurated by British Prime MinisterTheresa May and French PresidentEmmanuel Macron on 6 June 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, after the installation ofDavid Williams-Ellis'sD-Day Sculpture.
Construction was performed from 2019 to 2020 by the French companyEiffage-Route.[5] The stonework was made by the stonemasonsS. McConnell and Sons at their works inKilkeel,County Down, Northern Ireland, using 4,000 tons of French limestone fromMassangis.
The memorial was designed by British architectLiam O'Connor, who previously designed the BritishArmed Forces Memorial at theNational Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and also theRAF Bomber Command Memorial in London.[1] It lies parallel to the coast, about 700 m (2,300 ft) inland from Gold Beach.
The centrepiece of the memorial is a bronze sculpture byDavid Williams-Ellis, with larger than life size statues of three soldiers coming ashore during the D-Day landings.[6][7]
The names of 1,746 people killed onD-Day, 6 June 1944, are inscribed on the D-Day Wall of the central memorial court, constructed around Williams-Ellis's sculpture. The dead on succeeding days are inscribed on 160 white columns of the cloister court in chronological order of death clockwise around the Memorial Court, up to 31 August (shortly after the closure of theFalaise Gap on 21 August and theliberation of Paris on 25 August, and just before theSupreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force moved from London to Versailles andDwight D. Eisenhower took direct command of Allied forces in Western Europe). The names are arranged on each day by service branch, including RAF personnel killed on supporting missions, and special forces and agents operating behind German lines, including members of theSAS andSOE.[8] The roll of honour was compiled by professional historians, Jane Furlong and Andrew Whitmarsh.
Long crossing paths across the quadrangle of the memorial create a plan that resembles theUnion Flag. At the centre of the quadrangle is a bronze wreath and shield by French sculptorsValentine Herrenschmidt andChristophe Charbonnel [fr] on a stone plinth bearing an inscription of words from theTomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey. On the west side of the site is a memorial dedicated to the 20,000 French civilians killed during the war in Normandy.
In a field adjacent to the memorial are the remains of the Mont Fleury German battery of 122 mm (4.8 in)coastal guns that remained uncompleted on D-Day, with only one captured Soviet122 mm gun M1931 (A-19) gun installed but not yet operational.[9] The village of Ver-sur-Mer has a French war memorial, separate memorials to theRoyal Artillery regiments of the50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and to the 2nd battalion of theHertfordshire Regiment, and a preservedSexton self-propelled25-pounder gun. A small memorial toCSM Stan Hollis of theGreen Howards, the Stan Hollis Hut, stands by the beach near where he landed on 6 June 1944.
During planning some local residents expressed concern over an increase in tourism andenvironmental degradation to the area.[10] The reaction of visitors and local residents since the memorial was completed has been very positive.[citation needed]
The British Normandy Memorial is maintained in partnership with theCommonwealth War Graves Commission.[11] As noted above, the construction of the memorial was supported by the British Government. Ongoing maintenance of the memorial and its landscape is funded through voluntary contributions.
49°20′18″N0°32′15″W / 49.338229°N 0.537598°W /49.338229; -0.537598