Flanders Field American Cemetery - Waregem, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium - Veteran Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

The Flanders Field American Cemetery in Waregem is the only permanent American World War I cemetery in Belgium. It started as a temporary battlefield burial ground in September 1918, but was donated after WW I by the Belgium Government. The cemetery itself was designed by Architect Paul P. Cret from Philadelphia on behalf of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) in 1925, and was built between 1928 and 1930, landscape architect was J. Greber from Paris. The cemetery was officially inaugurated on August 8th, 1937

Four symmetrical plots with 92 graves each are aligned to the outer walls of the small memorial chapel in the center. Of the 368 buried soldiers were 21 unknown, the Walls of the Missing inside the chapel tells us of another 43 missing service members. Nearly all soldiers buried here were from these four divisions who fought in Belgium during the final weeks of the war: the 27th "New York", the 30th "Old Hickory", the 37th "Buckeye" and the 91st "Wild West". The four divisions counted more than 4700 casualties.

The octagonal chapel is nearly 8m high and was built of white Pouillenay stone, the inner width is about 4m. Inside the chapel is a small altar made of black and white marble, on either side of it are bronze candelabras, flags of the United States, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy are placed beside the candelabras. On the ceiling is a mosaic, which shows a golden lighted oil lamp on the stars of Heaven with eight doves of peace flying around.

The cemetery was put under monument protection by the Belgium government on April 1st, 2009.

References:
- Flanders Field American Cemetery, Library of Congress.
- Flanders Field American Cemetery, ABMC.
- Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial, Wikipedia.

Date cemetery was established: started 1918, redesigned in 1930, officially inaugurated on 8/8/1937. Visiting hours: Daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except December 25th and January 1st. Website pertaining to the cemetery: [Web Link]

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