New monuments at Normandy, Cantigny shaped by American
By GARRY MITCHELL Associated Press Writer

FAIRHOPE, Alabama (AP) - Sculptor Stephen Spears is turning history into bronze with the first monument to the U.S. Navy's D-Day heroes at Normandy and a statue of a World War I doughboy at the site of a landmark American victory in Cantigny, France.

His three bronze figures of a Navy captain and two sailors will be installed on a bluff overlooking Utah Beach to remember the naval service's role in World War II's pivotal amphibious invasion, adding a new visual element to the landscape at the historic site.

"All the monuments at Normandy are stone pillars, obelisks or plaques," said retired Navy Capt. Greg Streeter, chairman of the Navy D-Day Monument Project. "What we like most about our monument is that it is composed of representations of human figures that represent the officers and enlisted men that participated in the naval aspects of the Normandy invasion."

Mike Conley, a spokesman for the American Battle Monuments Commission, which approved the Navy monument, said there are three human sculptures in the Normandy cemetery, but Spears' work will be the first with human figures on Utah Beach.

At Cantigny, Spears' bronze doughboy - or infantryman - will illustrate American's vital, yet lesser-noted role in WWI, said Benoit De Weirdt, mayor of the French city.

"We mostly know the Americans for the D-Day invasion. As far as World War I goes, (the French) know much less about it," De Weirdt said.

He hopes that will change. The Americans "were the ones who put a final endpoint to the war," he said. "Also, Cantigny is the first battle the Americans won on European soil. ... It's a point of reference."

The monuments will be unveiled in separate ceremonies later this year.

Spears' "Cantigny Doughboy" bronze was commissioned by the Cantigny First Division Foundation in Wheaton, Illinois. Foundation executive director Dr. Paul H. Herbert said the French government has endorsed the US$111,000 (euro72,000) monument that will be unveiled May 28.

Streeter said Spears' D-Day work will be dedicated Sept. 27 above Utah Beach in Normandy.

Spears said he hopes the three 8-feet (2.5-meter) -tall figures - all on a pentagonal base - will stir emotions among viewers about the largest amphibious assault in history.

"I have a great deal of pride in doing them. I've done art all my life," said Spears, 51, the son of an Air Force colonel.

Spears said the US$500,000 (euro325,000) Navy monument, nearing completion, will list all U.S. Navy ships that participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Some 1,068 sailors were killed and eight warships sunk. Hundreds of ships and thousands of men were involved in transporting Allied forces from England to Normandy.

The Navy provided shore bombardment to protect troops going ashore, conducted minesweeping and anti-submarine patrols, among other duties.

In Cantigny, the doughboy statue's granite base was installed last year. Mounting the doughboy on the pedestal in May will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cantigny in World War I. That battle helped stem the German spring offensives of 1918.

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On the Net: Cantigny Park: http://www.cantignypark.com