Maintaining our Cemeteries and Monuments: Naval Monument at Brest

ABMC manages 27 monuments, memorials and markers around the globe, each necessitating its own unique maintenance plan to ensure these sites continue to meet the standards set by the agency.  While some markers are modest in size, constituting no more than a few square feet, others, such as the World War I Naval Monument at Brest, rise high over the landscape.

Brest, which is the westernmost port of France, served as American Naval Headquarters during the Great War. As the principal port of embarkation and debarkation of troops, equipment and supplies, more than 700,000 members of the American Expeditionary Forces flowed through here during the war. American ships performed escort duties from this port, as well as combatted German submarines, with a force of more than 30 destroyers and dozens of smaller subchasers. During July and August 1918, more than 3,000,000 tons of shipping was convoyed in and out of French ports by vessels based at Brest.

This rectangular shaped memorial made of granite, which commemorates these naval forces, rises 145 feet from the ground and overlooks the harbor. Originally dedicated in 1937, the Germans destroyed this monument just four years later during World War II. The present structure, completed in 1958, is a replica and it sits upon a German bunker complex at the approximate site of the original monument.

Throughout the course of recent years, the physical appearance of the monument had begun to degrade. To correct these issues, a team of experts from ABMC’s Overseas Operations Office put together a plan to remedy the problems in a matter of a few months. Wrapped in scaffolding to complete all the work, the exterior of the Naval Monument at Brest has been cleaned from top to bottom, and repairs and rehabilitation were made to the copper roof, and all the mortar joints.

ABMC remains dedicated to honoring those Americans that served overseas in World War I and World War II through the continued care and maintenance of our 25 cemeteries and 27 monuments, memorials and markers.