American WW2 Cemetery
At the Henri-Chapelle American War Cemetery are 7992 gravestones with 94 unknown soldiers on a field of 23 hectare (57 acres) next to a memorial for 450 missing U.S. service personnel. The cemetery lies 3 km northwest of the Belgium town of Henri-chapelle.
The U.S. soldiers fell during the last stages of the Second World War. The American soldiers are mostly from The Battle of the Hurtgen forest in Germany, or the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and The Battle for Aken, a German city close to the Belgian/ Dutch border. And the fallen soldiers from the First United States Army’s who fell during the advance from France, through Belgium, into the Netherlands or from fighting in Germany itself.
During our visit we met a former Wehrmacht soldier who came to the cemetery on foot from Germany. The German border is just 15 km from the Cemetery. This German gentleman walked to the cemetery almost daily, he told us. He and his unit fought in this area during the final phases of the war in Belgium. They had to defend certain areas but at first sight of approaching American troops the Russian soldiers assigned to their unit fled. The depleted German unit fought for what they could, but could not hold out against the American superiority. After the war, this former German Wehrmacht soldier regularly came to the Henri-Chapelle cemetery to honor the dead on both sides.(We met this gentleman in 2006).
Visit
The cemetery is open on a daily basis during daytime hours. A parking lot is next to it. Henri-Chapelle American cemetery lies on top of a hill with a nice view of its surroundings.
