History
Bretteville-sur-Laize was created as a permanent resting place for Canadian soldiers who had been temporarily interred in smaller plots close to where they fell. At the time of the cemetery's creation, France granted Canada a perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery. The graves contain 2793 soldiers from the 2nd Canadian Corps, 91 of them unknown, and 79 RCAF airmen killed in the Battle of Normandy.
A large number of dead in the cemetery were killed in the battle for the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. Canadians killed earlier in the Battle of Normandy were interred in the nearby Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery
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“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
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