FR - Colleville-sur-Mer - American Military Cemetary

We had visited the German cemetary at La Cambe last year, and I have to admit the feeling was different.

For one thing, the men buried at La Cambe were countrymen (yes, ultimately they fought for, or were sacrificed for a horrible regime, but that doesn't stop them from being countrymen). Besides, without the success of Operation Fortitude North (the faked invasion in Norway from Scotland), my granddad, who was stationed in Norway, might have been transfered to Normandy and ended up at La Cambe, too.

Another big difference: the graves at La Cambe indicate not only the date of death, but also the birth date. And as D-Day caught the Germans by surprise, they moved every available force to Normandy in the days after. And that meant mostly freshly recruited youngsters - many of the guys at La Cambe were teenagers when they met their fate. Of course the folks buried at Colleville weren't elderly men either - but the gravesides don't have birth dates on them. As this was the first American cemetary I have ever seen, I don't know if this is commonplace or just something they did on this site.