Photograph of Omaha Beach War Cemetery by Alex Nichol

Omaha Beach War Cemetery

My second stop today was quite overwhelming; no photograph I could take would ever do it justice. The American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach, where more than 9,000 servicemen are laid to rest, all killed during the campaign to save Europe from annihilation at the hands of the nazis.

Photograph of one of the American War Cemeteries in Normandy by Alex Nichol
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + Canon 35 mm f/1.4 L II USM

When I came here, I had no sense whatsoever of the enormity of the sacrifice made by young men whose names we’ll never know. Until I witnessed the seemingly never-ending sea of white crosses, going on and on into the distance.

What you see here is only one tiny corner of it. There are 9,388 soldiers buried at Omaha. This is only one of 27 such cemeteries in Normandy alone. The debt we owe to these people is utterly catastrophic.

These photographs were taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the extraordinary Canon 35 mm f/1.4 L II USM .

Alex Nichol

About the photographer

Alex Nichol is an amateur photographer based in the UK dabbling with landscape, travel and documentary. Alex has shot with pretty much everything, from classic 35mm and medium format film cameras from Zenit, Leica, Hasselblad, Mamiya and Rolleiflex, to digital SLR and mirrorless systems from Leica, Sony, Canon, Panasonic and Olympus. He is currently shooting with the Fujifilm X System.


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