Flanders Field, American WW1 Cemetery – Waregem, Belgium

Flanders field is the only American World War I cemetery in Belgium.

On a 2.5-acre plot of land, 368 American soldiers are buried around a chapel. The fallen soldiers come from four different U.S. units deployed in the final year of the war.

The 27th New York and the 30th Old Hickory Divisions saw action near Ypres from August 18 to September 4, 1918. The 37th Buckeye and 91st Wild West Divisions pushed west from Waregem and across in Belgium the Scheldt River at Oudenaarde from October 30, 1918 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918.

Of the 368 graves, 21 are unknown. With the exception of the Jewish 8-pointed star, all graves are marked with a marble cross. In the chapel the names of 45 missing soldiers are listed. The 368 graves are divided into 4 pieces around the chapel. Flanders Field is the smallest Armenian cemetery outside the United States.

Flanders Field and Poppies

Flanders or Vlaanderen in Dutch (Flemish – Belgian Dutch) is a region located in the northern part of Belgium.

When the Canadian soldier, physician and poet Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae attended the funeral of his friend Alex Helmer on May 3, 1915 during the second battle of Iper in the First World War, he started writing a poem. It would become the most mentioned poem of the war with a legacy to date. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae called it Flanders field, which is the common English name for the First World War in Belgium and France.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.