Why were the American soldiers killed on D-Day buried in Normandy and not brought back to the United States and buried on our soil?

Many of those American soldiers, sailors & airmen KIA on D-Day were brought back to the US to be reburied here. This option was offered to the falilies in the late 1940's & early 1950"s. However, many families felt is was best to leave their sons where they fell, liberating France & ending NAZI tyranny.

This was typical of not just the Normandy cemetery at Collievielle-sur-Mer, but American cemeteries all over the world. After a battle, it was the duty of members of the Grave Registration Services to locate and identify the soldiers Killed In Action. The proper thing to do was to bury the dead as soon as possible and record and mark the graves. Later, maybe a few months after the front had moved further away or maybe after the war had ended, the bodies were moved to a central cemetery.

Then after the war, the Government offered to return them back to the US so their families could bury them at their hometown. Some families accepted this offer and others did not. For example; General George Patton expressed a wish to be buried in Europe with the soldiers he served with.

The current cemetery at Normandy was set-up as a temporary burial site on 8 June 1944, just 2 days after the Allies landed on near-by Omaha Beach. This was later selected as the permanent site by the ABMC.

All American cemeteries on foreign soil are considered soverign property of the United States of America and as such, the Stars and Stripes flys over the rows of markers.

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was established by Congress in 1923 to commemorate the service, achievements, and sacrifice of U.S. armed forces where they have served overseas since 1917, and within the U.S. when directed by public law.

The Commission administers, operates, and maintains 24permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil. Presently there are 124,913 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries, 30,921 of World War I, 93,242 of World War II and 750 of the Mexican War. Additionally 6,149 American veterans and others are interred in the Mexico City and Corozal American Cemeteries.

The ABMC website allows you to search for those who remain buried on foreign soil. You can search for someone by Name or by Unit ID. It provides their name, rank, serial number, hometown, and date they were killed in action, along with the cemetery and the exact location of their headstone.

The Location of all cemeteries maintained by the ABMC, both WW1 and WW2, are as follows:

Cemeteries

Aisne-Marne, France

Ardennes, Belgium

Brittany, France

Brookwood, England

Cambridge, England

Corozal, Panama

Epinal, France

Flanders Field, Belgium

Florence, Italy

Henri-Chapelle, Belgium

Lorraine, France

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Manila, Philippines

Meuse-Argonne, France

Mexico City, Mexico

Netherlands, Netherlands

Normandy, France

North Africa, Tunisia

Oise-Aisne, France

Rhone, France

Sicily-Rome, Italy

Somme, France

St. Mihiel, France

Suresnes, France