Ardennes American Cemetery

The approach drive at Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium leads to the memorial, a stone structure bearing on its façade a massive American eagle and other sculptures. Within the memorial is the chapel, three large wall maps composed of inlaid marbles, marble panels depicting combat and supply activities and other ornamental features.

The Ardennes American Cemetery is the final resting place for 5,162 Americans, with 65 percent of those being fallen airmen of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Their headstones are aligned in straight rows that compose the form of a Greek cross. Along the outside of the memorial, inscribed on granite slabs, are the names of 463 of the missing, whose remains were never recovered. The façade on the far (north) end that overlooks the burial area bears the insignia, in mosaic, of the major U.S. units that operated in northwest Europe in World War II.

This cemetery is unique among all ABMC cemeteries as it served as the central identification point for the entire European Theater of Operations from the last days of the war until 1960.

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