9th Troop Carrier command / airborne memorial, Normandy, 2014.

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I just returned from Normandy having spent "D-Day week" there. For those who have never been there, I can tell you that there are many memorials to the allied fallen...some understated, often just a street name-plate bearing the name of a vet, or perhaps a roadside marker. Others are more "grand" and formal. Two such examples are illustrated here. I spent much of my time in and around Ste Mere Eglise in the heart of the US airborne DZ. Whilst en route to Ravenouville my attention was caught by the first example you see here. It's the pine end of a private house constructed from the typical honey-coloured stone commonly seen in Normandy...but with a difference. The house-holder had made the wall into memorial to the US airborne who had landed and fought in that vicinity. Carved into the brickwork and molded into the mortar were the names of the fallen, together with the familiar symbols of the US airborne. This was done by the elderly gentleman you see in the picture who was, in fact, a young boy living in the village at the time of D-Day. It's his personal tribute and certainly as heartfelt and worthy as the "official" monuments.

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The next memorial is a much more formal one on a grander scale. It's the 9th Troop Carrier Command memorial at Picauville. As the photos illustrate, it's a very impressive monument with a C-47 in flight above a wall of honour, with plaques documenting the events of June 6, 1944. Alongside this is an engine recovered from a C-47 which crashed nearby. At the rear left is a wall in the shape of a C-47 fuselage which bears the names of the fallen together with photographs of a number of them. A touching home-made memorial board had been left by some relatives of one of the fallen. Front left was a new addition to the monument, covered over and scheduled to be unveiled at a ceremony on June 6th.

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Private family memorial.

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BTW...to add to the general "ambiance", every day last week a pair of C-47s were flying over the DZ area at low level...a magnificent sight and sound! You can just about see one between the bunting in the snap-shot below!

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An example of the smaller, more discreet memorials that can be seen in Normandy. This one is mounted quite high up on a wall in Ste Mere Eglise.

 

 

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A number of these markers can be found near the beaches, each one commemorating a fallen GI.