Remembrance is a year-round activity for the American Battle Monuments Commission, as it is for the Wartime Heritage Association - September 2023 ________________________________________ 2023 marks the 100th Anniversary of the American Battle Monuments Commission. Today, the ABMC administers, operates, and maintains 26 permanent American burial grounds and 32 separate memorials, monuments, and markers, on foreign soil. It also maintains four memorials in the United States. For sometime now, the Wartime Heritage Association has been curating a list of WWII casualties with ties to Nova Scotia. The current list includes 3764 people. The large majority of these, approximately 95 percent, served with Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. But, among these are over 200 who served with American Armed Forces in WWII. 84 of these Nova Scotians rest in the cemeteries, or are remembered on memorials, administered by the ABMC including the five Ardennes, Brittany, Epinal, Lorraine and Normandy American Cemeteries and Memorials in France, the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in England, the Corozal American Cemetery and Memorial in Panama, the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium, the Luxemburg American Cemetery and Memorial, the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Tunisia, and the three Florence, Rhone, the Sicily-Rome American Cemeteries and Memorials in Italy, the East Coast Memorial in New York and the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. You can explore their stories at: http://wartimeheritage.com/whaww2ns/us_wwii_casualties_ns_connection.htm In July 2009, during the 70th Anniversary of the beginning of WWII, board members George Egan and Glen Gaudet of the Association visited the Normandy American Cemetery, in Colleville-sur-Mer, on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. As the group walked in to the Cemetery that summer holiday, France's Bastille Day, Glen took notice of a father walking in beside him, his children in hand. In French, he heard the father explaining calmly to his children how they were there to pay their respects, to thank those who gave them their freedom. "On est ici pour rendre hommage, pour remercier ceux qui sont enterrés …” In addition to the WWII casualties, there are also four casualties with ties to Yarmouth County, NS, from the First World War interred at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the Somme Cemetery, and the Suresnes American Cemetery in France: Ivan Vernon Higby of Yarmouth, is interred at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery Edgar Keith Matthews of Darlings Lake, is interred at the Somme American Cemetery Thomas Edward Meuse, the son of Eel Brook and Tusket parents, is interred at the Suresnes American Cemetery Frederick Redmond, his mother who lived in Yarmouth, is also interred at the Suresnes American Cemetery Another 21 WWII casualties with ties to Nova Scotia are interred at National Veterans Cemeteries in the United States (managed by the National Cemetery Administration). Where the ABMC is tasked with caring for US war graves overseas, the National Veterans Cemeteries care for the graves of Veterans stateside. These 21 casualties are listed in our recent post on Arlington and the other National Cemeteries. “ Time will not dim the glory of their deeds.” - General of the Armies John J. Pershing

Glen Gaudet is the Vice-Chair of the Wartime Heritage Association Background photo: Sicily-Rome American Cemetery

Sicily-Rome American Cemetery