Cambridge American Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 52.216891, 0.055018
Location: South Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire
Record count: 8,938

Ownership: American Battle Monuments Commission

Directions: Cambridge American Cemetery lies along the north side of Madingley Road, about 1 km east of the A428.

Madingley Road

Coton, CB23 7PH

Cambridge, UK

Background: The Cambridge American Cemetery site in England, 30.5 acres in total, was donated by the University of Cambridge. It lies on a slope with the west and south sides framed by woodland. The cemetery contains the remains of 3,811 U.S. war dead; 5,127 names are recorded on the Walls of the Missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. Most died in the Battle of the Atlantic or in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe.

American servicemen lost their lives long before Pearl Harbor, as merchant seaman rallied to the British cause in the Battle of the Atlantic and American Eagle Squadrons joined the Royal Air Force in the skies above Britain.

Noted Burials

Crew of the USS Reuben James, the first American warship lost in the Battle of the Atlantic, Wall of the Missing. She was sunk by a German U-boat on October 31, 1941, while escorting a convoy.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Lieutenant, U.S. Navy Reserve, Wall of the Missing. Brother of the late President John F. Kennedy. On August 12, 1944, his plane exploded while on a mission from Britain against a German rocket site in France.

Glenn Miller (listed as Alton G.), Major, U.S. Army Air Forces, famed musician and composer, Wall of the Missing. He vanished on Dec. 15, 1944 after flying in a single-engine airplane headed from England to France.

Leon R. Vance, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Army Air Corps, Medal of Honor recipient, Wall of the Missing. He displayed conspicuous gallantry on June 5, 1944 as command pilot of a heavy bomb group on a mission to destroy German coastal positions in France. He was wounded but survived. Tragically, Lt.Col. Vance’s air evacuation plane bound for home to the United States disappeared without a trace on July 26, 1944.

Burial Records

• ABMC Burial Records, by Interment.net, October 30, 2019, (8,938 records)

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