A SPECIAL COMMEMORATION

I have blipped Mr. HCB's Uncle Ernest previously on Armistice Day last year, but felt I wanted to remember him on this special day, 6th June 2014, the day 70 years ago, in the Second World War on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy.

We don't know any details about Uncle Ernest's death, except it sadly occurred just over a month after D-Day and his body is buried in the Cemetery at Banneville-la-Campagne, which is a village in Normandy, 10 Km east of Caen.

For the most part, the men buried at Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery were killed in the fighting from the second week of July 1944, when Caen was captured, to the last week in August, when Allied forces were preparing their advance beyond the Seine.

The cemetery contains 2,170 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 140 of them unidentified and 5 Polish graves.

I have been reading some facts and figures about World War Two - probably the most compelling one is that although the official numbers can never be confirmed it is estimated that between 50 and 70 million people died due to the conflicts. When you take into account the number that is the equivalent of the whole of the United Kingdom losing their lives, which is absolutely staggering. We will remember them.

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Plato