I found the following information on this web page:
http://www.omaha-beach.org/US-Version/Cemetery/Cemeteries.html .
I recently buried my father, a WWII vet in the National Cemetary at
Calverton NY. There was no charge to open the grave and bury him or
for the head stone. There is no choice in head stone but there are
several choices for inscriptions. At Calverton they use a traditional
rectangular white headstone with inscription of name, rank, dates of
service, military service and an inscription the family can choose.
The New Cemeteries
In time it was decided to create a 'final resting place' that would become a
memorial for the fallen American dead. It was decided to build this new
American Cemetery on the bluffs, over looking the beach between Colleville
and St Laurent. Here the American dead buried in various locations in the
Omaha Beach area would be consolidated together in one final interment.
With the creating of the new cemetery, Graves Registation and German
prisoners had the difficult task of exhuming, sorting and moving the bodies.
French civilians place flowers on the graves of fallen Americans. It is
unclear if this photo was taken at la Combe or at the site of the second or
new American Cemetery at Colleville on Omaha Beach.
When the new American Cemetery was set up above Omaha Beach near Colleville,
the American dead at the la Combe Cemetery and those buried at the 'First'
Cemetery down on the beach, were disinterred and brought to the new American
Cemetery site for re-internment .
The 'New' American Cemetery above the beach. Soon the wooden crosses would
be replaced by Italian white marble crosses as a part of a permanent
landscaping effort.
This cemetery is today the famous American Cemetery at Omaha Beach which
stands today as a memorial to the American fallen. Those who saw the movie
Saving Private Ryan will recognize the site which was the location in the
final scene of the movie.
The New Cemetries Take Form
The la Cambe site was now to become the German War Dead Cemetery. German
dead buried at American cemetery sites and those found in small burials
sites spread across the country side, were collected and brought together
into a single cemetery at la Cambe.
As money became available, a great effort had been made in the design
landscaping of both sites, out of respect for the dead and to create a
garden setting in which visitors can come and contemplate the cost that the
generation buried here paid for their duty to their respective nations.
The landscaping of the new American Cemetery begins to take shape.
The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach is noteworthy for their field of white
Italian marble crosses. The land of the new American Cemetery was given to
the United States by the French government and is now under American
administration.
The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. PHOTO-S. Bryant |
