National D-Day Memorial

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National D-Day Memorial pool with Overlord Arch

The National D-Day Memorial is located in Bedford, Virginia. It commemorates all those who served the United States during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 during World War II. In 1944, Bedford had a population of about 3,200. Because this community proportionally suffered the nation’s severest D-Day losses, Congress authorized construction of the memorial in Bedford.^[1]

1 The Memorial
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The Memorial

According to the memorial’s foundation, the memorial is formed of three distinct plazas. The Overlord Arch represents the invasion date of June 6, 1944 at 44 feet and 6 inches tall. The first plaza, the English Garden, symbolizes the planning activities for the invasion through the execution of the order for the invasion. It is in the shape of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force combat patch. The second plaza reflects the landing and fighting stages of the invasion. It includes what is called the invasion pool with obstacles in the water, sculptures of soldiers struggling ashore, and a representation of the Higgins craft used for the invasion. This section includes jets of water rising from the pool replicating the sights and sounds of gunfire. The names of the United States' losses appear on the west wall of the central plaza, the Allies' losses on the east. In the spirit of Dwight Eisenhower's one-team command philosophy for the AEF, no other distinctions are made.^[2] The last and uppermost plaza represents victory and includes the twelve flags of those Allied nations that served in the Allied Expeditionary Force. Dedicated in 2001, over 750,000 people have visited the site.^[3]