Margraten war cemetery

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Dutch Mosin
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Margraten war cemetery

Post by Dutch Mosin » Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:23 pm

Not so very long ago we visited the Margraten war cemetery near the city of Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands.
I had visited the cemetery many times before, but the wife and kids were there for the first time.

This cemetery occupies 65 1/2 acres of former farmland.
The site was liberated on September 13th 1944 by troops of the US 30th Infantry Division.
It was established on November 10th 1944 by the US 9th Army.
8302 Americans are still buried here.
The cemetery is still Dutch soil, but it was given to the American People out of respect (I think the correct words are "free loan") until the end of times.

Some pictures:

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In the last picture you see part of a wall.
There are two of these walls on the cemetery in which the names, ranks, organization and state of 1723 American MIA of the US Army and US Army Air Forces are engraved.
These men gave their lives in this region but their remains were never recovered or identified.
A little star marks the names of those who have since been recovered and identified.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin
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DuncaninFrance
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Re: Margraten war cemetery

Post by DuncaninFrance » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:44 pm

Thanks for the post Martin.

I think the phrase you are looking for is " In Perpetuity" as with the War Grave burial grounds in France.

I have mentioned this before but make no apologies for doing it again.......................
I am involved in a huge project which is photographing every British & Commonwealth War Grave in the world!
The website is at http://www.twgpp.org/ where you will find full details of our progress. We now have some 1,652,847 photographs in our archive and need all the help we can get.
Vern very kindly did some photographs for us recently.
We have now included burials and private memorials for any nation worldwide so if anyone wants to help out please let me know.
A read down the Thanks Page http://www.twgpp.org/thanks.php shows just how much this project has meant to some people
:GBR: :AUS: :NZ: :FRA: :NET: :CAN: :USA:
Duncan

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Niner Delta
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Re: Margraten war cemetery

Post by Niner Delta » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:29 pm

That is a beautiful cemetery, and from the names of the town I will guess it is the result of Operation Market Garden (Sept. 17th-24th, 1944, or as the movie was called, "A Bridge Too Far".
The bridge at Arnhem was 'the' bridge too far, it wasn't taken, but destroyed by bombers on Oct. 7th.

Vern.
:USA:

Peace is that brief, quiet moment in history.......... when everybody stands around reloading.
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