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Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery

NORTH SHORE LEGACY 120

BY: MADELINE & LAUREN LANDRY

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Beny-Sur-Mer War Cemetery and D-Day

This is a Canadian Cemetery for the soldiers that were killed on the beaches and during the bridge battles. 

It is a cemetery located near the village of Reviers for the soldier that were killed on D-Day and the days following. 

The Allies arrived on the Coast of Normandy on June 6th, 1944, with plans of carrying out Operation Overload, D-Day. 

The Canadian Soldiers stormed onto Juno Beach and faced heavy resistance from the Germans. 

The Germans had many defenses set up when the Allies arrived. There was headgehogs, barbed wire, mines, obstacles, and gunfire. Due to the casualties from D-Day and onward, it was required to have a cemetery to bury the Canadian soldiers.

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Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery

  • It contains the headstones of 2044 Canadian soldiers killed in battle.
  • Although the cemetery does not belong to the French, they treat it like their own and take care of the upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery.
  • Mayor Daniel Guerin and the people from Reivers are the responsible for keeping up with the maintenance.
  • The cemetery was designed by P.D. Hepworth. The original plan for the cemetery is attached on the slide below.
  • Beny-sur-Mer is the Canadian War Cemetery where most of the soldiers that died on D-Day are buried.

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Cemetery Plan

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Where is the Cemetery Located?

The cemetery is in Reviers, France. Reviers is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region, located in Northwestern France.

Reviers is only 4km south from Courselles-sur-Mer and it is only 15km northwest of Caen.

The village of Reviers lies between the rivers of Seulles and Mue.

West of Reviers, there is a bridge that crosses over the Seulles River.

This bridge connects to Colombiers-sur-Seulles crossing a bridge that crosses the Mue that connects to east of Tailleville.

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Suelles

Muese

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Visiting Information 

Upon arrival at the cemetery, you can park your car in the parking spaces available for five vehicles. It is a paved with gravel and there is a sign posted with all information regarding the cemetery.

Access to the site is available through two separate entrances between two stone columns on either sides of one wall.

Once you go through the entrance there is narrow strips of paving surrounding the grass and headstones.

There is seating available behind the main entrance.

Nearby, there is a grassed area and there is two stone buildings for shelter with seating with seating inside. Between the shelters there is the Stone of Remembrance.

There is viewing platforms attached to the shelter buildings. In the middle of the Beny-sur-Mer cemetery stands the Cross of Sacrifice.

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Members of the North Shore Regiment buried at Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery

Many of the men buried at Beny-sur-Mer are from the 3rd Canadian division.  

There are 2,044 graves of those men from the 3rd division and 15 graves of airmen. 

The cemetery also includes 4 British graves and 1 French grave.

On D-Day alone there was a thousand casualties and out of those thousand, there was 340 Canadians wounded or dead.

The list of men lengthens throughout the next couple days.

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Sources