American Cemetary in Cambridge

I took Mom, Dad and Philip one afternoon over to the Cambridge American Cemetary and Memorial. What a humbling experience. It even brought Mom to tears.

The following information is from Wikipedia:

The cemetery dates to 1943, when it was opened as a temporary cemetery on 30.5 acres of land donated by the University of Cambridge. After the war, it was selected as the only permanent American WWII military cemetery in the British Isles, and about 42% of those temporarily interred in England and Northern Ireland during the war were reinterred at Cambridge Cemetery. It was dedicated on 16 July 1956.

The cemetery contains 3,809 headstones, with the remains of 3,812 servicemen, including airmen who died over Europe and sailors from North Atlantic convoys.

The inscribed Wall of the Missing includes four representative statues of servicemen, sculpted by American artist Wheeler Williams. The wall records the names of 5,127 missing servicemen, most of whom died in the Battle of the Atlantic or in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe.

Besides personnel of the United States Forces there are also buried 18 members of the British Commonwealth armed services, who were American citizens serving chiefly in the Royal Air Force and Air Transport Auxiliary, besides an officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force and another of the British Royal Armoured Corps, whose graves are registered and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The memorial building is 85 ft long, 30 ft wide and 28 ft high; it is made of portland stone; the doors of teak are embellished with relief models of World War II military equipment. The memorial is separated into a large museum room with a small chapel at the far end from the doors. A great map on the wall shows schematically the air sorties flown from East Anglia, together with convoys across the North Atlantic and other actions in the war. The wall and roof has a mosaic of angels and ghostly aircraft.

Cambridge with Grandma and Grandpa

After our London trip, Grandma and Grandpa stayed a few more days with us in Cambridge.  They got to see our daily routine as well as visiting a few more places in town including King's College Chapel.  (All pics in this post are my Dad's.)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that Dad got of Cambridge just because they really show the true character...

We did take them punting.  That was a must...

And, what would a trip to visit your grandkids be without a trip to the park and watching some after-school activities?

Charlie's first day of Year 2

Charlie was finally given a spot for school at Grove Primary School.  It's a bit far from the house but it's our only option so we'll be putting many miles on our bicycles!  Here is a picture of Charlie on his first day in his school uniform...