There are three American Cemeteries in Belgium. Last year we visited the one at Flanders Field for Memorial Day. See
this post. This year we went to Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. It is a little over an hour from our house. There was a 1.5 hour ceremony attended by various Belgian officials and representatives from the US embassy, as well as about 300-400 people. For the 2nd year in a row, we were thoroughly impressed with how many local residents attended - probably 80% were local. And as we approached the cemetery, the little town of Henri-Chapelle had American and Belgian flags flying in most yards. It is actually quite moving to be so far from home, and seeing the Stars and Stripes flying alongside the flag of our current home. After 70 years, it is amazing how the Belgian people still remember and commemorate what happened.
From the American Overseas Memorial Day Association website:
The Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery is the final resting place of
7992 soldiers and airmen. They came from 49 states, the District of
Columbia, Panama, and the United Kingdom. Among the graves are 38
instances of 2 brothers lying side-by-side and one instance of 3
brothers buried side-by-side.The graves of 94 are marked with crosses
that read "Here Rests in Honored Glory A Comrade in Arms Known But To
God." The Colonnade through which one enters the cemetery lists the
names of 450 servicemen whose bodies where never recovered.
On 12 September 1944, the US First Infantry Division liberated the
site of the cemetery, and five days later the US Graves Registration
Service created a cemetery there. By the end of the war, there were
17,000 Americans and 10,600 Germans buried at the site. In 1946, the
bodies of the Germans were transferred to the German cemetery at Lommel.
Starting in 1947, most of the bodies of the Americans were repatriated
to the United States. In 1948, the site was selected as a permanent
American cemetery for those whose bodies would not be repatriated.
Most of the soldiers buried in the cemetery died in the advance of
the American Armed Forces into Germany in 1944-1945, particularly in the
battles of the Aachen, and the drive to the Roer. The
cemetery is the final resting place of hundreds of soldiers killed in
Belgium and Holland during Operation Market Garden in September 1944,
and in the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. It is
also the final resting place of 420 airmen. Seven of the Wereth 11
massacre victims are buried at the cemetery, as are several victims of
the Malmedy massacre, and one member of the "Band of Brothers."
Matt's first contribution to a blog post.....EVER:
That's right, after 6 years of having this blog, I am contributing for the very first time. So the night before we went to the ceremony, I remembered that my Uncle Maurice Arnold had written an autobiography recently. Mom had sent us the section about his time in WWII, so we got it out for a little inspiration.
Uncle Maurice crossed the English channel and served in France and Belgium. As we read through his book, there were a number of city names that we know having either passed through or visited that he also visited - Charleroi, Verviers, St. Vith, Bastogne. I can't even imagine how different these cities look in 2014 vs. 1944. We then came over the following section:
"I had located the quarters assigned to the 926th and found all of my men present except for those still in Bastogne. They arrived later in the day, and I placed them on the second floor of a building across the street from where the officers and other men were quartered. I took my liquor ration over to these men, as I had been accustomed to doing, and wished them a Merry Christmas. That was the last time I would see them alive. These men took a direct hit by a buzz bomb during the night: Master Sgt. Lloyd Hunt, Master Sgt. Olin Fritz, Sgt. Santiago Gonzales, Sgt. Robert Baldwin, T/4 Talisfor Budzeika, and T/5 Robert Bivins."
Based on this, and the fact you can find a lot on the internet in a few seconds, we learned that Talisfor Budzeika and Santiago Gonzales were buried in Henri-Chapelle. So we resolved to visit their graves the next day.
Below are pictures of their graves. We've been to the American cemetery in Normandy, France and now 2 in Belgium. We've walked between hundreds of crosses and stars of David - but this was the first time we were able to seek out specific graves.
So hopefully Uncle Maurice, Mom passes this on to you - we figured the least we could do to honor the service you and these men gave to our country was to visit their grave and say a simple prayer.
Flyover of the C-130 during the ceremony:
The weather was not fabulous, but the rain held off while we were visiting the cemetery. We are so thankful we were able to be a part of this memorable day. Next year, we hope to visit the last of the American cemeteries in the Ardennes.
