U.S. dead are buried in France
Heavily blasted field is first American cemetery
At a U.S. beachhead cemetery, France (AP) – (June 9, delayed)
Stretched out on their backs with their pitiful personal belongings lying beside them on this bomb-blasted, shell-scorched bit of the Normandy beach lie the American dead – men and boys who paid the supreme price for wresting this strongly fortified position from the Nazis in a daring daylight amphibious assault.
They lie here mutely waiting while troops dig long trenches for temporary mass burial. Nearby, also awaiting burial are the bodies of 10 Germans and two Britons.
Negro troops digging these common graves labor silently with an occasional awed glance at the stiff forms under the white covers that had been thrown over them.
This is America’s first cemetery in France in this war. It is not a pretentious place. A few days ago, it was a German minefield separating the beach defenses from the rugged pillboxes and forts in a steep hill that rises a few hundred yards from the ugly, rock-strewn beaches.
When the Americans swarmed onto the beaches through murderous surf, angry German guns mowed them down. The cold greedy water of the wrathful Channel, lashed by a three-day wind, clutched at some, sucking them down.
This battle was so fierce that our grave registration officers – men who bury the dead and tell the folks back home about them – had to spend most of their time in foxholes. When the enemy retreated into the hills, these officers gathered their weary men and began bringing bodies to this place – where the green grass is turned black from the fury of high explosives.
Another cemetery is being prepared nearby because this hallowed ground is too small to care for the men who will not fight again.