U.S. War Cemeteries and
Memorials Located on Foreign Soil
There is no doubt that the U.S.
Armed Forces is a truly global organization, with more than 300,000 active duty
servicemembers deployed in more than 150 countries, and more than 800 bases
operating in 70 countries. It’s not surprising, perhaps, that there are
numerous cemeteries and memorials spread throughout the world honoring the U.S.
soldiers, sailors, and airmen who have given the ultimate sacrifice on foreign
soil. While some are large and impressive, others are smaller, tucked away in
small villages or on scenic overlooks. Many were established out of necessity
during war, only later being formalized into official memorials. In any case,
they are worth adding to your travel itinerary during your next international
trip. The chance to pay respect to U.S. servicemembers in foreign countries
reminds us that the fight for and support of freedom does not stop at the U.S.
borders.
The American Battle Monuments
Commission employs a full-time staff of 418 people around the world in 2017. All
ABMC sites are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, with the
exception of Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Cemeteries are not closed for
national holidays. When the sites are open to the public, a commission staff
member is available to escort visitors and relatives to grave and memorial
sites or to answer questions.
1.) Aisne-Marne
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Belleau, France
This 42-acre WWI cemetery is
located in the foothills of Northern France, and is the final resting place for
casualties from the Battle of Belleau Wood and the Battle of Château-Thierry,
where many Americans lost their lives. The cemetery contains 2,288 burials, 251
of which contain unknown remains, while the memorial wall of the chapel (built
over the location of the trenches from the battle) lists 1,060 soldiers missing
in action.
2.) Ardennes
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Ardennes, Belgium
One of 14 cemeteries for American
World War II dead on foreign soil, this 90.5-acre cemetery and memorial
contains the graves of 5,329 U.S. servicemembers. Many of these died during
Nazi Germany's final major offensive in the west, the Battle of the Bulge,
while others died in the advance to the Rhine and across Germany. Three-fifths
of those buried in this cemetery were airmen.
3.) St.
James American Cemetery
Location:
Brittany, France
Most of the 4,410 of World War II
American soldiers buried at this 28-acre cemetery lost their lives in the
Normandy and Brittany campaigns of 1944. This site also honors the names of
more than 450 never recovered. Ninety-five of the headstones mark graves of
"unknowns," with two of these graves containing the remains of two
Unknowns that could not be separated. In 20 instances, two brothers are buried
side by side.
4.) Brookwood
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Brookwood, Surrey, England
The only American Military
Cemetery of World War I located in the British Isles, this cemetery lies
approximately 28 miles southwest of London, Brookwood. As a smaller cemetery,
this 4.5-acre memorial serves as the final resting place to 468 American WWI
servicemembers, including the graves of 41 Unknowns. The memorial chapel
contains the engraved names of 563 missing, most of whom served in the United
States Navy and Coast Guard, whose graves are in the sea.
5.) Cambridge American Cemetery
Location:
Cambridge, England
Located between the villages of
Coton and Madingley, the 30.5-acre cemetery contains 3,809 headstones and the
remains of 3,812 servicemen, including airmen who died over Europe and sailors
from North Atlantic convoys. The inscribed Wall of the Missing records the names
of 5,127 missing servicemen, most of who died in the Battle of the Atlantic or
in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe.
6.) Clark
Veterans Cemetery
Location: Clark
Freeport Zone, Philippines
This 20.365 acre cemetery is the
burial place for thousands of mainly American veterans and Filipino Scouts who
served in the United States Army, and who died in different conflicts and wars (the
Spanish–American War, the Philippine–American War, World War I, World War II, the
Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War) or on military bases in the Philippines. Around
8,000 American and Filipino soldiers are buried here. There are also over 2,100
unknowns buried at Clark. It was established in 1948 and added to the ABMC in
2013.
7.) Corozal
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Corozal,
Panama
This 16.90 acre cemetery and
memorial is the burial place of 5,528 American servicemen who served during the
Mexican – American War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and all other major conflicts. It was established in 1914 and taken over by
ABMC in 1982.
8.) Epinal
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Dinozé, France
This 49-acre cemetery and
memorial rests on a plateau overlooking the Moselle River in the foothills of
the Vosges Mountains. It contains the graves of 5,255 of the United States'
military dead, most of who lost their lives in the campaigns across northeastern
France to the Rhine and beyond into Germany during World War II. It was
originally established in established in October 1944 as the Army drove
northward from southern France, and became the final resting place for the
fatalities in the bitter fighting through the Heasbourg Gap.
9.) Flanders
Field American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Waregem, Belgium
Flanders Field was immortalized
by a famous poem penned by a battlefield physician that would one day lead to
the wearing of red poppies on “Remembrance Day,” or Memorial Day in the United
States. This six-acre cemetery is the only American World War I cemetery in
Belgium and is the final resting place for 411 American servicemen buried or
commemorated there. Many of them fell at Spitaals Bosschen, an action of the
Ypres-Lys Campaign by the 91st Infantry Division in the closing days of World
War I.
10.) Florence
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Florenece, Italy
Most of the 4,402 U.S.
servicemembers buried on this 70-acre site are from the Fifth Army who died in
the fighting that followed the capture of Rome in June 1944; others fell in the
heavy fighting in the Apennines that continued until May 1945. The memorial
commemorates an additional 1,409 servicemembers who gave their lives in this
area approximately 7.5 miles south of Florence.
Three Medal of Honor recipients are also buried here.
11.) Henri-Chapelle
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Liège, Belgium
One of three American war
cemeteries located in Belgium, this 57-acre cemetery and memorial acts as the
final resting place for 7,992 U.S. servicemembers who died in WWII. Most of
these lost their lives during the advance of the U.S. armed forces into
Germany, and their headstones are arranged in arcs stretching across a broad
green lawn overlooking the rolling Belgian countryside that was once a
battlefield.
12.) Lafayette
Escadrille Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Marnes-la-Coquette
, France
This 11.11 acre cemetery and
memorial commemorates the birthplace of American combat aviation, and serves as
a symbol of the Franco-American comradeship during World War I. This site
honors the American volunteer pilots who flew with French squadrons during the
Great War, and is the final resting place for 51 of America’s first combat aviators and their
French Officers. Established in 1928 and added to the ABMC in 2017.
13.) Lorraine
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Moselle, France
Located just outside Saint-Avold,
Moselle, France, this cemetery and memorial covers 113.5 acres and contains
10,489 graves, the largest number of any American World War II cemetery in
Europe. Those interred died mostly in the autumn of 1944 during the drive to
the Siegfried Line as the Americans sought to expel the Germans; they were
mainly part of the U.S. Third and Seventh Armies.
14.) Luxembourg
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
This 50.5-acre site contains the
remains of 5,076 American service members, most of who died during the Battle
of the Bulge that was fought nearby in winter 1944-1945. On 22 occasions, two
brothers rest side-by-side in adjacent graves. German fallen from the same
battle are buried in the Sandweiler German war cemetery, about 1.5 kilometres
away, marked with dark stone crosses compared to white tombstones of the
American cemetery.
15.) Manilla
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Metro Manila, Philippines
Located in Fort Bonifacio, within
the boundaries of the former Fort William McKinley, this 152-acre cemetery
contains 17,206 graves, and has the largest number of graves of any cemetery
for U.S. personnel killed during World War II. Many of the personnel whose
remains are interred or represented were killed in New Guinea, or during the
Battle of the Philippines (1941–42) or the Allied recapture of the islands.
Twenty-three Medal of Honor recipients are buried or memorialized at the Manila
cemetery. Also honored are the five Sullivan Brothers, who perished when their
light cruiser was sunk in June 1942.
16.) Meuse-Argonne
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Meuse, France
This 130.5-acre World War I
cemetery is located east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon in Meuse,
and contains the largest number of American military dead in Europe. Most of
the 14,246 interred here lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
The walls of the chapel include tablets of the missing which are inscribed with
the names of those soldiers who fought in the region and in northern Russia,
but have no known grave.
17.) Mexico
City National Cemetery
Location: Mexico
City, Mexico
This small cemetery in the heart
of Mexico City was established in 1851 by the United States Congress to gather
the American dead of the Mexican-American War that lay in the nearby fields and
to provide burial space for Americans who died in the vicinity. The remains of
813 Americans and others are interred in wall crypts on either side of the
cemetery, and a small monument marks the common grave of 750 unidentified
American dead of the War of 1847. The cemetery was closed to further burials in
1923.
18.) Netherlands
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Margraten, Netherlands
This 65.5-acre site is located
along the famous Cologne-Boulogne highway, originally built by the Romans and
used by Julius Caesar. Hitler's legions advanced over the route in 1940,
overwhelming the Low Countries, and later used it to withdraw four years later.
The cemetery is the final resting place for 8,301 American dead, most of who
lost their lives nearby. An additional 1,722 names of American missing are
inscribed on the walls of the cemetery’s court of honor.
19.) Normandy
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Normandy, France
On June 8, 1944, the U.S. First
Army established a nearby site as a temporary cemetery, the first American
cemetery on European soil in World War II. After the war, the present-day
cemetery was established a short distance to the east, in Colleville-sur-Mer.
The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the Normandy
Invasion landing beaches, and the English Channel. It covers 172 acres and
contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of who were killed
during the invasion of Normandy. It includes the graves of Army Air Corps crews
shot down over France as early as 1942, three American women, and the graves of
two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt.
20.) Oise-Aisne
Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France
Situated about 70 miles northeast
of Paris, this 36.5-acre cemetery contains the graves of 6,012 American
soldiers who died while fighting in this vicinity during World War I. 597 of
these were not identified. The site also includes a monument for 241 Americans
who were missing in action during battles in the same area and whose remains
were never recovered. Included among the soldiers here who lost their lives is
poet Joyce Kilmer.
21.) Rhone
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Draguignan, France
This American war cemetery in
located in Southern France, memorializing American soldiers and mariners who
died in Second World War operations in that area. The cemetery covers 12.5
acres and is named for the Rhone River and its watershed, where most of those
interred fought and died. Those interred were mainly part of the U.S. Seventh
Army – in particular the US 45th Infantry Division, the US 36th Infantry
Division, and the US 3rd Infantry Division – and mostly died during the summer
of 1944 during Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France from
the Mediterranean, which followed the Allied invasion of Normandy.
22.) Sicily-Rome
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Nettuno, Italy
Established in Nettuno, Lazio, as
a temporary wartime cemetery on January 24, 1944, two days after the landing at
Anzio and Nettuno – codenamed Operation Shingle[1] – the site covers 77 acres.
A large field of headstones contains 7,861 graves of American military war
dead. The majority of these men died in the liberation of Sicily, in the
landings in the Salerno Area and at Anzio and Nettuno, and in air and naval
support in the regions. The site also includes a chapels whose white marble
walls contain the names of 3,095 of the missing.
23.) Somme
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Bony, France
Situate 0.5 miles southwest of
the commune of Bony, Aisne, in northern France, this cemetery is located on a
gentle slope typical of the open, rolling Picardy countryside. The 14.3-acre
cemetery was established in October 1918 on ground that saw heavy fighting just
before and during the Battle of St Quentin Canal. It contains the graves of
1,844 U.S. military dead from World War I. Most lost their lives in the assault
on the Hindenburg Line while serving in American II Corps attached to the
British Fourth Army. Others were killed in operations near Cantigny. An
additional 333 names are listed on the wall of the chapel, in remembrance of
the missing.
24.) St. Mihiel
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location: Thiaucourt, France
Located at the west edge of
Thiaucourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle), France, the 40.5-acre cemetery contains the
graves of 4,153 U.S. military dead from World War I. The majority of these died
in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the offensive that resulted in the reduction of
the St. Mihiel salient that threatened Paris. The onsite chapel and small
museum records the names of 284 of the missing as well as a large map of inlaid
marble depicting the St. Mihiel Offensive.
25.) Suresnes
American Cemetery and Memorial
Location:
Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), France
Situated on the high on the
slopes of Mont Valérien, this 7.5-acre cemetery offers panoramic views of
Paris. Originally a WWI cemetery, it now shelters the remains of the dead from
both World Wars, including 1,541 Americans who died in World War I and 24
Unknown dead of World War II. Bronze tablets on the walls of the chapel record
the names of 974 World War I missing. The chapel walls also include a summary
of the loss of life in the United States' armed forces in each war, together with
the location of the overseas commemorative cemeteries where American war dead
are buried.
