The unmistakable Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial stands on top of the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. Extending to over 170 acres, the site was opened in July 1956 and now receives over one million visitors each year.

A few key figures…
➡️ 9,387 burials and 1,557 names of those missing in action on the Wall of the Missing

➡️ 9,238 crosses and 149 Star of David headstones

➡️ There are graves of 304 unknown soldiers - marked with the inscription ’Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God’

➡️ Three Medal of Honor recipients lie here

➡️ 45 sets of brothers are buried here including two sons of President Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt Jr (died July 1944) and Quentin Roosevelt (killed in WW1 and reburied next to his brother in 1955)

➡️ Brothers Preston and Robert Niland, the inspiration for the movie Saving Private Ryan, are buried next to each other too

➡️ The 22 foot statue is called the Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves

➡️ The chapel ceiling contains 500,000 tiles in its mosaic