British Normandy Memorial

This monument in Ver-sur-Mer, located on a hill overlooking Juno Beach, was unveiled in 2019 by Prime Minister Theresa May, in the presence of President Macron, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Along the footpath leading to the monument are a number of columns recounting the story of the battle between the landing on the beaches on 4 June 1944 and the end of the Battle of Normandy in August of that year.

The columns of the monument bear the names of the 22,442 British or British-commanded soldiers who died on D-Day and later during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. The names of people from more than 30 different countries are engraved in stone and brought together in this place for the first time. The site also features a French memorial in memory of French civilians who died during this period.

In 2024, in honour of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, 1,475 so-called Giants were placed in the low-lying area towards the beach. These silhouettes of soldiers and sailors symbolise the 1,475 soldiers from Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries who died on D-Day. Among the silhouettes are those of two British nurses and 50 French resistance fighters who died on D-Day. In 2025, this project was repeated due to its great success. Whether the Giants will return in subsequent years is uncertain.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Jan van den Bos (1, 3), Jan de Jager (2, 5), Jeroen Koppes (4), Freek Marsman (6, 7, 8)
• - https://www.standingwithgiants.co.uk/