Located near Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, the Normandy American Cemetery holds the graves of 9,386 American dead and memorializes another 1,557 on its Wall of Missing, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and the following combat. On June 8, 1944, the U.S. Army established the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery on this location, making it the first American World War II cemetery in Europe. After the war ended, the American Battle Monuments Commission chose to make this site a permanent American cemetery, dedicating it as the Normandy American Cemetery in 1956.
Florida servicemen buried in the Normandy American Cemetery