ABMC

Faces of Cambridge American Cemetery - Forever Young

Sat 28 May 2022 - Mon 30 May 2022

Cambridge American Cemetery

During Memorial Day weekend – the US equivalent of Remembrance Sunday - join us to discover the young Americans who travelled to the UK during World War II and lost their lives for freedom.

From Saturday 28 May-Monday 30 May, 0900 to 1700, ‘Faces of Cambridge’ will exhibit all of the images from CAAC’s library of materials. Portrait photographs will either be displayed at the individual headstones or in the newly created ‘plots’ for those whose names are inscribed on the Wall of the Missing.

This year marks the 80th Anniversary of the arrival of the first US GIs in World War II. Disembarking from a troopship at a Belfast dock on 26 January 1942, their arrival marked the start of 'Operation Bolero'. That trickle became a flood. Over 3.5 million Americans were to pass through Britain during the wartime period.

The vast majority of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses and American Red Cross workers honored at CAAC had never left their home towns before, let alone travelled overseas. The first part of their journey involved training in different locations throughout the US, followed by deployment to countries they knew only through books or movies.

At its peak, just before the D-Day invasion in June 1944, more than 1.6 million Americans were stationed in the UK. Known as 'The Friendly Invasion', American forces became an integral part of English life, especially in the East Anglian region.

CAAC wanted a way to bring the memory of these Americans to life – to put a face to the name. With help from other researchers and historians, we have collected an archive of images, which is meant as a legacy for future generations. Although we now hold over 4,500 images on file, we are still actively collecting. Staff are also researching the biographies of those commemorated, so that we are better able to tell their story. This is a project that we do not expect will ever be complete, but it is our way of honoring those in our care.

CAAC is the only cemetery in the UK dedicated to honoring fallen Americans who served during World War II. The majority of the service members honored here died in the Battle of the Atlantic, in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe, or in training exercises.

Many Americans who took part in this conflict made the ultimate sacrifice and never returned home. Almost 9,000 of those brave men and women are buried or memorialised here at CAAC.

They are ‘Forever Young’.

Cost: Free