Bayeux War Cemetery, Commonwealth war cemetery in Bayeux, France
The Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Second World War cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers in France, located in the town of Bayeux in Normandy. It contains the graves of over 4,000 servicemen, most of whom died during the Invasion of Normandy, and across the road stands a memorial to more than 1,800 soldiers who have no known grave.
The cemetery was started during the war by a British unit responsible for recovering and burying the dead, and it was completed in 1952. It became the largest Commonwealth cemetery in France from the Second World War, and in 1994 and 2004 Queen Elizabeth II and French presidents attended ceremonies here to mark the D-Day anniversaries.
The cemetery is a place of remembrance where visitors walk slowly among the uniform white headstones, many of which bear personal inscriptions and flowers left by families. The adjacent memorial carries the names of soldiers with no known grave, and its Latin inscription links the Normandy landings to William the Conqueror, who left from these shores for England in 1066.
The cemetery is open every day and entry is free. The ground is flat and easy to walk on, with paved paths near the entrance and grass paths between the rows of graves; benches are placed around the site for resting.
The memorial's Latin frieze, NOS A GULIELMO VICTI VICTORIS PATRIAM LIBERAVIMUS, translates as "We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror's native land." Among the names is that of 189 men of the 43rd Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment, killed when the MV Derrycunihy struck a mine off Ouistreham on 23 July 1944.
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