Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial

About this place

On a green slope looking out over the Cambridgeshire flatlands, rows of white marble headstones curve in successive arcs like frozen waves, and beneath them lie just over 3,800 American servicemen who died in the Second World War. This is the only American military cemetery in Britain, laid out on land the University of Cambridge gave in 1943 and formally dedicated in July 1956; a US federal commission still runs it, and keeps every blade of grass looking as though it was trimmed with scissors that morning. The main path runs alongside the Wall of the Missing, a stone slab roughly 144 metres long carved with the names of more than 5,100 men whose bodies were never recovered, mostly aircrew lost over Europe and sailors swallowed by the Atlantic. Two names every American knows are here: bandleader Glenn Miller, whose plane vanished over the Channel in 1944, and Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., elder brother of the future president. At the end of the wall stands the Portland-stone memorial, with a vast wall map explaining the air sorties flown from East Anglia and a ceiling of blue-and-gold mosaic carrying angels and bombers in the same sky. Look up, and do not rush out. The small visitor centre, open since 2014, tells the story through personal belongings, letters and short films, and deserves twenty minutes before you walk among the graves rather than after. Everything is free, and the site opens every day from nine to five except 25 December and 1 January, which is unusual among rural British sites, many of which shut for most of the winter. Paths are paved and fine for pushchairs and wheelchairs, toilets are in the visitor centre, and there is no café and no dedicated prayer room, so plan both in town. Getting there from Cambridge: by car it is about fifteen minutes west along Madingley Road, with free parking at the gate, the easiest option for families. Without a car, the Citi 4 bus towards Cambourne from the city centre stops outside the entrance in around 25 minutes, but it runs only about once an hour, so check times before you set out; or park at the Madingley Road Park and Ride and walk twenty minutes along the pavement. An hour is enough, though you may find yourself staying longer; the place is quiet in a way that makes children fall silent unprompted, and on a clear summer afternoon the view from the top of the slope is one of the finest around Cambridge.