D-DAY....360' Sweep of Omaha Cemetery.

D Day 360....
Lordy,Lordy : Thanks for posting that view of the cemetery. How large is that place? It is literally wall-to-wall graves.

What a sad place. <<sniff>>

A sad place indeed, Linda.....there are over 3000 graves there, most of which have exactly the same date engraved on the headstone.

I was stunned by ages of those soldiers......most in the 20, 21 and 22 year old age bracket.

If you drag the camera around until you see a conical fir tree, very close by, in the middle of a main pathway, then just go slightly to the right of that, so that it is just about on the edge of your picture, and click the "zoom" at the top of the picture a couple of times.
There, you will see the sea and the horizon, just to give you an idea of how close the Cemetery is to the beach.

D-Day....
You're exactly right,Ellpus. How sad to see so much wasted life and potential,dead before they had really lived. I've never been there but I know I'd cry my eyes out constantly. Have you ever been to the Arizona memorial in Hawaii ? It's a memorail To the USS Arizona,and the crew that were lost at the Pearl Harbor attack. I've never been,but from what I've heardf it,too,is heartbreaking.

Re: D-Day....


No Linda, we didn't get the time to see that, as we were passing through, from Fiji up to Vancouver. I just about had enough time for a Mai Tai, a quick stroll along the beach and a lunch, before going back to the Airport.
It didn't cost any extra to stop in Hawaii, so we thought "what the hell, another place to tick off the list".....but from what I saw, I will definitely go back there one day.

The Pearl Harbour area was not that far from us either.....I wished I'd stayed a bit longer now.

Cool website Ellpus. I can't help thinking of the opening scene in 'Saving private Ryen'.

wow.
im sure the web site does the grave site no justice.
It cant POSSIBLY be as small as it seems on the web.
Sad indeed.
Even sadder.. there is no way in hell that piece of land was ever that peaceful during war time.

3000 graves?
that cant possibly be everyone. :-(

Too Sad May they rest in peace.

Shewolf, the actual casualties on Omaha beach for D-Day, were estimated at around 2000, but the Cemetery above Omaha beach also contains the US Troops that were killed on Utah, the paratroopers who landed, but were killed inland, and others that were killed over the coming week of fierce fighting, as the Allies established a foothold on French territory.
Omaha is not the only US Cemetery, as there is also another in Brittany (called St James's)


http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm

D-DAY......

"The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach."

wow.
I did not know that.
I thought the death toll was MUCH higher and that a larger precentage was 'estimated' because alot were lost in the water..