American Battle Monument Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium

This video presents a brief narrated tour of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery's landscaped grounds, architecture, and works of art.

At the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium, covering 57 acres, rest 7,992 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives during the advance of the U.S. armed forces into Germany. Their headstones are arranged in gentle arcs sweeping across a broad green lawn that slopes gently downhill. A highway passes through the reservation. West of the highway an overlook affords an excellent view of the rolling Belgian countryside, once a battlefield.

To the east is the long colonnade that, with the chapel and map room, forms the memorial overlooking the burial area. The chapel is simple but richly ornamented. In the map room are two maps of military operations, carved in black granite, with inscriptions recalling the achievements of our forces. On the rectangular piers of the colonnade are inscribed the names of 450 missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. The seals of the states and territories are also carved on these piers.

The cemetery possesses great military historic significance as it holds fallen Americans of two major efforts, one covering the U.S. First Army's drive in September 1944 through northern France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg into Germany, the second covering the Battle of the Bulge. It was from the temporary cemetery at Henri-Chapelle that the first shipments of remains of American war dead were returned to the U.S. for permanent burial. The repatriation program began on July 27, 1947 at a special ceremony at the cemetery when the disinterment began. The first shipment of 5,600 American war dead from Henri-Chapelle left Antwerp, Belgium the first week of October 1947. An impressive ceremony was held, with over 30,000 Belgium citizens attending along with representatives of the Belgium government and senior Americans.

The cemetery is open daily to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except December 25 and January 1. It is open on host country holidays. When the cemetery is open to the public, a staff member is on duty in the Visitor Building to answer questions and escort relatives to grave and memorial sites.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• memorial
• day

[MyLaurelDentist]

My cousin Richard Gliarmis rests here. God bless him...

[Eleanorfan1992]

@aaatripp1 I have adopted a grave of a soldier there who died on the 13th of February 1945 and it was also said he died of wounds during the Battle of the Bulge.

[aaatripp1]

Beautifully done. At 0:23 sec the narrator says "lost their lives during the Battle of the

Bulge" but the headstone pictured is of a soldier who was KIA on 10 Feb 45 (the BoB took place 16 Dec 44--25 Jan 45). Would be nice to have historic accuracy.

Not meant to take away from the brave sacrifices of these soldiers.

[CocaCola782]

my dad works at this cemetery as a assistant super attendant

[dhammer53]

I didn't see any Star of Davids, as I did when I visited my uncle.

[THX138Driver]

Thank you for posting this fine piece.