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 7992 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives during the advance of the US 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 US 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 …

Tagged as: American, Battle, Belgium, Cemetery, HenriChapelle, Monument