Thursday, August 12, 2004

War Cemeteries Today didn't go exactly as planned.  We'd originally hoped to visit the Luxembourg American Cemetery this morning and then make our way into Luxembourg city for the rest of the afternoon.  Mother Nature intervened. We did manage to find the American cemetery without too many problems.  It is located right next to the Luxembourg airport, and you just have to go there and then follow the signs.  The cemetery itself is beautiful in a very solemn kind of way.  The meticulous way the over five thousand graves are laid out is a sight to behold.  Most of the dead buried there came from the campaign during the winter of 1944-1945 by the Allies to invade Germany and seize all the territory up to the Rhine river.  They are the men who died in the area I live in, a very sobering thought once you see the diagrams they have posted around the cemetery detailing where the battles took place, and realizing that I live right smack in the middle of it.  For all I know, American soldiers died fighting in my backyard. The most famous grave in the cemetery is that of General George S. Patton.  Though he did not die in the war, he is buried with the men he led into battle.  His grave was originally amongst all the others, but people kept trampling the grass over the surrounding grave sites to get close to his, so it was moved to a spot just above the rest.  There are also some 300 plus graves of unknown soldiers buried there.  Made me wonder what the families of those soldiers do when they come visit.  They know their soldier is buried there, but they don't know which one is his.  Do they just adopt one and consider that cross their own? What we didn't know was that a German military cememtery existed nearby.  We made our way over to it, although it isn't nearly as easy to find.  You have to walk down a long, dark forest path until you come to an iron cross with a very dreary looking gate. At the German cememtery, over 10,000 soldiers are buried.  Interestingly, there are not 10,000 crosses.  Instead, four names are listed on each grave marker.  Two on the front and two in the back.  Many of the markers list "ein Deutscher Soldat," where the unknown ones lie.  A much more somber place compared to the American cememtery, especially with the huge stone cross dominating the graveyard and the dark storm clouds that came rolling in while we were there. In fact, those storm clouds made us hastily change our plans.  So instead of spending the afternoon, we spent a few minutes driving around downtown Luxembourg, and then once the rain came crashing down, we made our way back home. For the record, downtown Luxembourg looked great and will get revisted sometime soon once better weather returns. Related site: The Luxembourg American Cememtery and Memorial 8:07:32 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.