Cambridge American Cemetery photo appeal for US war dead

Sgt George Tullidge died parachuting into Normandy, while Cpt Raymond Check was killed on his last mission, the day before he was due to marry

A public appeal by a US military cemetery to "put a face" to each man, woman and child it commemorates has unearthed 1,000 photographs.

Nearly 9,000 Americans who died during World War Two are remembered at the Cambridge American Cemetery.

Staff located 3,000 photographs of former servicemen ahead of a public appeal in February.

Cemetery associate Tracey Haylock said the photographs help visitors realise how "really young most of them were".

About 100,000 black GIs were based in the UK, including Rufus Manigault (left) and Ernest Carey (right). Carey was among over 700 men killed when the Germans attacked during the pre-D-Day rehearsal Exercise Tiger in April 1944

John Walker was one of nine siblings - his eighth sister took this photograph. A navigator stationed at Nuthampstead near Royston, his B-17 Bomber crashed into the Channel on 30 December 1944

The cemetery, at Madingley, near Cambridge, is the UK's only permanent US World War Two military burial ground.

It commemorates 8,914 people, including those for whom there are no remains because they were lost at sea, or who took off from UK air bases but were not seen alive again.

The photo appeal was launched to mark 75th anniversary of the "friendly invasion", when US forces first arrived in the UK in February 1942.

Six children are buried at the cemetery, including Ivan Richter. His mother Alice Williamson (above) was one of 40,000 GI brides and married the Ninth Air Force's James Richter. Ivan died of pneumonia aged three months in 1945

Otis Ham was part of a regiment which defused mines on the beaches in Normandy ahead of the infantry. The former professional baseball player died when his party came under fire. This French road sign marks his death

American Red Cross volunteer Dorothy Stretch (left) was arrested in Japan in 1940, accused of being a spy, and died after falling out of a window in London in 1943. Glider pilot Vivianna Cronin (right) died in a plane crash in Scotland, returning from the US after her brother's funeral

Guide Suzie Harrison said: "Being able to put a face to the name on a headstone or on the Wall of the Missing really resonates with visitors."

The photographs will be placed beside each headstone or along the Wall of the Missing in the run-up to US Memorial Day on 29 May.