Relation with Lake (class): Lake Casualty Cemetery (LCC)  
Total nr. of casualties buried here (TC): 18.000 end WW2, today 5.328. 
Lake casualties, initially, end WW2 (LC-I): 0
Unknown today: 792
of which unknown from Lake (LC-U): 10?
of which unknown from the North Sea (NS-U): 400?
Initial burial site in WW2: yes. 
Post war centralisation burial site: yes 
Cemetery with Lake casualties today: yes (LCW).


          
ARDENNES AMERICAN (WAR) CEMETERY - NEUPRÉ - BELGIUM

Neupré is the recent name for the Neuville-en-Condroz community. The US war cemetery opened here on 8 February 1945. It then was the battlefield cemetery for the 2nd and final push through the Hürtgenwald in February 1945. After that, it became the 4th cemetery were bodies found in the Battle of the Bulge area (Ardennes) were moved to, buried or reburied (the Bulge fighting ended in January 1945). This cemetery is located 30km northwest and outside the Bulge battle zone. Because it was 4th, last build and "not reached its full capacity" after the war, it became the attached cemetery of the US Central Identification Point in Europe. From 1945-1947 the remains of thousands of USAAF airmen were brought over to here from Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark for identification and re-interment. Other than the name suggests, today 'Ardennes' is with 3200 airmen (60%) the airwar cemetery of the 8th and 9th Airforce strategic bombing campaign over NW-Europe. Number of men that could not be identified is 792.

   

Dutch name cemetery: Amerikaanse Oorlogsbegr. pl. Neupré. 
Full name: Ardennes American Cemetery.
Address (usable for car navigation):
Neupré (Neuville-en-Condroz), Belgium.

For reaction or comments; send us an email,
see address and info at CONTACT.
Please use as subject title: 'Ardennes'







Above the monument on Ardennes. The red dots on map represent (top-down) US cemeteries: Netherlands, Henri-Chapelle, Ardennes (left), Luxembourg and Lorraine. 

This site is researching the airwar and missing airmen over the Zuyder Sea area (see maps below). Many USAAF casualties from the Zuyder Sea region, were reburied in Ardennes, identification successful or not. The missing list Holland contains 1200 MIA US servicemen, but many of them rest here nameless. Therefore this is an important cemetery for our research. Unknown airmen here are most from the Belgium and Dutch North Sea coast, the Frisian Isles, North German coast and Danish west coast, see maps further below.





























Photo below: The field has the lay-out of a cross, which allows burials on the edges even today, without affecting the pattern.















































Cemetery-plan today. In 1948, before the repatriation program, the number of graves was 3,5 times more and the field was full up to the boundaries.




































Map below: In 'Ardennes' near Liege, hundreds USAAF airmen were post-war reburied who crashed in sea during the war. Between mid 1942 and mid 1945 they washed-up on the banks of the Zuyder Zee (today: Lake IJsselmeer) and the North Sea coastline from Calais to Heligoland and further upwards onto the Danish West coast. The current runs from Norwich, Ipswich to Dover, then Calais, Dunkirk, upwards to The Hague, Leeuwarden, Heligoland island and then further north. In 1945-1947, the US grave registration and recovery companies exhumed every American airman from the coastline cemeteries and brought them over to here or Margraten (Netherlands), but also to 'Lorraine' near Metz. Especially in the second registration and recovery effort in 1947, the more difficult cases were brought over to Ardennes because the central identification point was here. Many airmen however could not be identified and were laid to final rest here with 'Known but to God' on their grave marker. They were not repatriated to the USA in 1950, because no family could claim them as a relative. With the knowledge of today, information on the airman in a Known but to God-grave can be retrieved (narrowing down who he might be), provided that the initial coastline burial location in known.








































Map below: Typical track route for an USAAF bomber air attack on north west Germany in 1943.







































ABMC situation map of the three US cemeteries near Liege and battlefield situation September 15, 1944 - March 28, 1945.











































Below: Description of the other US cemeteries in the area.
Next to 'Ardennes', the US cemetery 'Netherlands' is also an important airwar cemetery. There are also reports that remains from the coast were transported to 'Henri-Chapelle', 'Luxembourg' and 'Lorraine'.



























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Vist October 2016






















































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The Monument.

































































Inside the Monument is a chapel and this wall map.


























































Cemetery side of the Monument.






















































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Sources:

- ZZairwar research on war time burial files and post war exhumation documents
- MACR
- ABMC site


Our file on American Cemetery Netherlands in Margraten: http://www.zzairwar.nl/dossiers/916.html





© ZZairwar (Zuyder Zee Air War).