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GERMAN WWII CEMETERY RECOGNE BELGIUM

Soldaten Graves Recogne/Bastogne

It was the dead of winter in 1944 the German Wehrmacht began its last desperate adventure to cut through the allied lines from Luxembourg to Antwerp. From the German side it was the “Ardennes Offensive”. From the Allied side it was the “Battle of the Bulge”. German soldiers who fought for their country and died in the failed campaign in the forests and fields of Belgium and Luxembourg remain buried in the farm fields of eastern Belgium.

Three miles north of Bastogne along the road to Noville, where one of the more famous actions of the campaign took place, in the little village of Recogne, the German Military Cemetery (Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte/Cimetiere Miltaire Allemand) 6,807 German war dead lie buried. About half of them were killed in the battles around Bastogne, others were from battles in Luxembourg, the German border area and some from 1940 and the occupation of Belgium. The cemetery is within sight of the town of Foy where the 101st Airborne held the German assault from foxholes in the Ardennes woods, still to be seen today. The German cemetery site once had American dead buried virtually across the road from the German, but the Americans were moved to the Cemetery at Henri Chapelle (see Battle of the Bulge War Sites).

An agreement was reached between the Kingdom of Belgium and the German Federal Republic that an Association of Maintenance of German War Graves (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsoge) would care for the upkeep of the German soldiers graves. Unlike allied graves with a marker for each soldier, the German cemetery has one marker for multiple soldiers. The earliest have up to six, the others up to 3 solders names on the low, thick gray lime-stone markers laid out in neat rows among the trees. The cemetery is separated from the road by a low red limestone wall and a chapel with a bell tower guards the north-west corner. Inside the chapel are etched the names of all the dead and their location in the cemetery. There is a custodian for the society who lives on the grounds and can answer visitor questions.

Visiting German War Cemetery Recogne

As usual, there is no charge to visit a war cemetery, but unlike U.S. military cemeteries, the maintenance association for German WWII war graves is a private organization partly relying on donations and there is a box for contributions. No matter which side of a conflict one feels a kinship, war cemeteries remain a reminder of the terrible price of war for any side. The grave site at Recogne is only one of the German war cemeteries. The Volksbund site has a search function to locate a particular soldier's grave. © Bargain Travel Europe

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SEE ALSO:



AMERICAN MILITARY CEMETARIES IN FRANCE

WWI BATTLEFIELDS OF THE SOMME - ALBERT-PROZIERS

IN FLANDERS FIELDS - WWI TRENCH MUSEUMS

