Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War I cemetery on the southeast edge of the town of Waregem, Belgium. The memorial was designed by architect Paul Cret. This is the only American World War I cemetery in Belgium and 411 American servicemen are buried or commemorated there. Many of them fell at Spitaals Bosschen, an action of the Ypres-Lys Campaign by the 91st Infantry Division in the closing days of World War I.
This cemetery is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and occupies a six acre (24,000 m²) site. As with all Allied war cemeteries, the land was provided in perpetuity by the Belgian government. The headstones are aligned in four symmetrical areas around the white stone chapel that stands in the center of the cemetery. The side walls of the chapel are inscribed with the names of 43 missing American servicemen who have no known graves. It is open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 except 25 December and 1 January. The ABMC also administers two American cemeteries in Belgium for World War II casualties: Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial; and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial.
The cemetery is in the area known as Flanders Fields, where fierce fighting took place throughout the war. Canadian war poet Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields on May 3, 1915, after witnessing the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before.
Charles Lindbergh flew over the Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial on 30 May 1927.
Famous quotes containing the words flanders field, flanders, field, american, cemetery and/or memorial:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,”
—John McCrae (1872–1918)
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,”
—John McCrae (1872–1918)
“She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when a sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“I should think the American admiration of five-minute tourists has done more to kill the sacredness of old European beauty and aspiration than multitudes of bombs would have done.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The cemetery isn’t really a place to make a statement.”
—Mary Elizabeth Baker, U.S. cemetery committee head. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 15 (June 13, 1988)
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)