Omaha Beach and the U.S. Cemetary

I am starting the tour of Normandy at Omaha Beach and the American cemetery at St. Laurent sur Mer.  The cemetery is located only a few miles from Bayeux.  Purchase a good Michelin map to assist in your travel.  If still available, I recommend Michelin Map 102 which is a historical map with the name of "Battle of Normandy."  You might check online to see if one is for sale.

The cemetery is open all year except for Christmas and New Years day.  Hours during the summer run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  During the winter, the closing hour is 5 p.m.  I recommend starting your visit at the Interpretation Center.  The Center presents oral histories by WWII veterans who participated in the landing along with artifacts given to the Center.  There is no charge for admission but visitors must go through a security check.

The cemetery is the resting place for 9,387 military personnel.  One notable person buried here is General Teddy Roosevelt,Jr., son of President Teddy Roosevelt.  Only a minority of these individuals were killed on D-Day with the rest killed in subsequent fighting in the Normandy Region.

For additional help, please google "American Battle Monuments Commission" which directs you to other American cemeteries in Europe

 Pictures of the Cemetery

A small part of the impressive memorial at the start of the Cemetery.

 Overlook of Omaha Beach

You can walk down to the beach and look back toward the bluff and see the challenge faced by the soldiers during the invasion.  The German defenders had preplanned the fire zone with their machine guns.  Their MG-42 machine gun had an extremely high rate of fire posing a real danger to the invading troops.

Row upon Row of White Crosses and Stars of David