American Wargraves Cemetary

[pickle]

Now i know this is an NV Forum but please bear with me. Had been meaning to visit the American War Grave Cemetery near Cambridge for some years now. So the other day we went there but only by default as the Cambridge road off the M11 was gridlocked and my intention was originally to go elsewhere. Packed our Morrisons sandwiches and some hot water in a flask. We got there and parked up - eventually, as the falling acorns impacting the car roof were deafening. Went through the open side entrance and headed toward the chapel. Some 3,000 American war dead servicemen and woman planted here. Funny old place, very still and quiet as one might expect. Moving along the vertical slabs on the south wall with the names of all the dead engraved in alphabetical order, soldier, sailor, airman etc, you can place the palms of your hands on the cool slabs if you so wish. The dead obviously do not say a lot in passing, but it is that which the inscriptions convey that tends to stay with one. The chapel at the East end is worth a look.The grass there is immaculate and uniformly emerald green in colour and cut, and looks a bit like plastic - but it ain't. Bizarre. There were no animals present within the cemetery boundaries and few visitors and it was eerily quiet. The name on the outermost South Westerly placed white cross near the flag pole is a guy called Marshall. So we moved on. There was a youngish plain looking woman who could have been Japanese but could also have been from anywhere, sat by the flagpole staring out over the dead. I wondered what her thoughts might have been. There were hundreds if not thousands of acorns outside in the car park - but not a Wood Pigeon or an American Grey Squirrel to be seen - eerily empty and silent. We moved on toward Gamlingay. I thought there might be a monument or castle there - from memory. Went through the village over the bumps and out through the other side and stopped at a farm shop. Picked up the biggest white potato i have ever seen in my life and bought a cake. No monuments evident. Outside there were two old girls in a car one helping the older woman into the passenger seat. Excuse me ladies says i, i hope you don't mind me asking but i have yet to find a monument or castle hereabouts - are there any? No castle here says the younger woman (probably in her seventies) and no monuments come to mind. Then the older lady - very well spoken, in her eighties at a guess says - you must mean Fotheringhay. Well yes I did actually - Richard the third and all that. So the younger lady inquires quizzically, where have you come from - well the American War Graves Cemetery says i. Oh i/we go there quite regularly says she. So at least we had some common ground here but it wasn't Mary Queen of Scots. Nice place to visit says i - very peaceful, yes she says, when i take my flying lessons we use the cemetery as a way point location for stall spin recovery practice, from about 3000 feet down - tends to keep the eye and mind focused, know it well.