Ranville war cemetery

Ranville War Cemetery
Ranville War Cemetery
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
	Ranville War Cemetery
	Used for those deceased 1944
Established	1944
Location	49°13′52″N 0°15′28″W / 49.23111°N 0.25778°W; near Ranville, Calvados, France
Designed by	Philip Hepworth
Total burials	2,560
Unknowns	2
Burials by nation
	Britain: 2,151; Canada: 76; Australia: 1; New Zealand: 1; Belgium: 1 ; France: 5; Poland: 1; Unknown Allied: 1; German: 322; Unknown: 1
Burials by war
	World War II
	Statistics source: Cemetery details. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Ranville War Cemetery is a Second World War cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers in France, located in Ranville, 10 km (6.2 mi) north east of Caen, Normandy. The cemetery contains predominantly British soldiers killed during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. A large proportion of those interred were members of the British 6th Airborne Division. The cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.^[1]

History

Grave of Lt. Den Brotheridge

Ranville was the first village to be liberated by elements of the British 6th Airborne Division on the morning of 6 June 1944 (D-Day) when the nearby (Pegasus Bridge) over the Caen Canal was attacked and captured. The cemetery contains the grave of Lieutenant Den Brotheridge - considered to be the first Allied death on D-Day.^[2]

The churchyard was immediately used to accommodate battlefield dead. Following the end of the war, the war cemetery was created which gathered field burials from locations including Amfreville, Colleville-sur-Mer, Colombelles, Houlgate and Villers-sur-Mer. Additional casualties were re-interred from grave sites in the Orne department.

Architecture

Contained within the cemetery is a Cross of Sacrifice, a piece of architecture typical of memorials designed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. As is typical of war cemeteries in France, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and immaculately kept. The final interments were made in 1946.