A Georgia Girl in Germany

I know it’s well past Memorial Day, but I still want to share these photos from our visit to Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in St. Avold, France. It’s only about an hour from where we live and is the largest American World War II cemetery in Europe covering 113.5 acres and containing 10,489 graves.



The headstones are arranged in nine plots in a generally elliptical design extending over the beautiful rolling terrain of France’s eastern Lorraine region and culminating in a prominent overlook feature.



Most of the dead here were killed while driving the German forces from the fortress city of Metz toward the Siegfried Line and the Rhine River. Initially, there were over 16,000 Americans interred in the St. Avold region, mostly from the U.S. Seventh Army's Infantry and Armored Divisions and its Cavalry Groups. St. Avold served as a vital communications center for the vast network of enemy defenses guarding the western border of the Third Reich.









The memorial, which stands on a plateau to the west of the burial area, contains ceramic operations maps with narratives and service flags. High on its exterior front wall is the large figure of St. Nabor, the martyred Roman soldier overlooking the silent host. On each side of the memorial, and parallel to its front, stretch the Tablets of the Missing on which are inscribed 444 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. The entire area is framed in woodland.

Zachary took a few minutes to write down the words on the inscriptions inside the memorial.

Whenever we visit cemeteries, we always try to find headstones bearing family names. This was the only Walker interred here, and it was a little surreal that his name was Ivey, since I have a cousin named Ivy Walker (granted, she goes by her middle name, but still).

Labels: Benjamin, Boy Scouts, France, Travel, Zachary