Knowing we'd be in the vicinity (we were traveling from Amsterdam to Frankfurt), My husband and I…read moredecided to take a day and stop in at this cemetery to pay our tributes to one particular soldier buried here, my grandfather's cousin, Francis C. Smedley, who was KIA during WW2.
First let me say that the cemetery is beautiful! It is very simple in it's layout, but it is just so clean and neat and well kept. There is a small lawn with a low stone wall at the entrance, and then a long tree lined driveway that leads to the parking lot. A large cube shaped memorial building, with a giant eagle carved on it, appears as you come out of the trees. There is a long, wide, crushed gravel path with a lawn on either side of it, that leads you to the building. Off to the sides, where this path begins, are small sidewalks. One leads to what I believe is a caretaker's building, and the other one leads to the bathrooms, and a small building where you can talk to someone who can help you find graves, and give you information about the cemetery. It is very much like a living room in this building, with a guestbook to sign and various displays about the cemetery's history and inception.
The doors to the memorial building are on one side and are unlocked while the cemetery is open. The inside has very little artificial light, with most of the light coming through 2 sets of windows that span from the tops of the emergency exit doors to the ceiling. There is very little furniture inside...a couple of benches are in the main open area, and a couple of chairs as well as a couple of kneelers are in an area that is made to be like a small chapel. It is "walled off" by 2 5-6ft tall monuments depicting the insignias of the military units that fought in the area, and an equally tall set of curtain walls to provide some privacy. On the main walls, are giant maps depicting the combat and supply activities across Europe. These are made from various colors of marble and other materials. These maps are easily 10-15 feet tall and wide. They are huge, and they are stunning!
Outside, on the stone pathways around the building are plaques (called Tablets of the Missing) listing the names of soldiers whose graves have never been found. Rosettes mark the names of those who have been found since the installation. On the back of the building, the insignias from the walls inside are again represented, but on a much larger scale, and in color.
Here, the grounds open up and before you is a vast lawn filled with grave markers neatly arranged in rows. From the air, the layout is that of a Greek cross, but from the ground, it is equally breathtaking. There is another monument type area at the far end of the cemetery with an American flag flying, but we did not take that close of a look at it, as the emotions of where we were and why we were there started to overwhelm me.
The gentleman that escorted us to Francis's grave provided both a Belgian and American flag, which we placed in front of his stone. I brought a Wisconsin flag from home, because it is the state from which he enlisted, and I was allowed to place that at his grave, as well.
This was my first visit to a military cemetery and I was very impressed! This is definitely how our veterans should be honored for making such a huge sacrifice.
*Something to note: I did the research...the best way to visit here is to rent a car. We stayed overnight in Brussels, picked up the car the next day, drove here and then dropped the car near the train station in Liège. The cost for the car rental was about the same as taking the train from Brussels to Liège, and there is no direct public transportation from Liège to the cemetery. The bus would have been a 2 hour ride, and would drop you about a mile from the cemetery. There aren't sidewalks in the area, so we would have been walking on the side of the road, and we had all of our luggage with us. Having a car also allowed us to stay as long as we wanted, with our luggage in the trunk. It was about an hour drive from Brussels to Liège, and another 15 minutes to the cemetery.*
21/2020
