Yup! I'm "working" on the third Cemetery that is within driving distance.
David starting mapping the 792 Unknown Soldiers of Ardennes. I didn't realized that he had indeed started, until I saw that he had 182 photo requests logged, so I've got some catching up to do.
At this point, I want to also cover the history of the Cemeteries, so I may add individual pages for each. I'm not sure how many pages I can add to one blog, so they may all end up as their own section on one page, but the intent is, either way, to cover the cemeteries seperate from the hints and tips and the progress of finding things.
Buuuuuut..... :-)
Ardennes.
I planned and plotted, and postponed, planned some more and postponed, mainly for health reasons, but I finally got to go this week. It was SO GOOD! Every cemetery is the same, as in the solemness, the quiet and the sheer amount on crosses, marking a lost life, and at the same time they all have a different feel in the back ground, making each a different experience.
I actually had help this time. I conned a friend of mine into going with me, and it made the day go by faster. It was not like it was when Mike went with me, and it never will be like that again, but it was nice. It wasn't really hot, which helped, I had actually brought the picnic basket, not just packed it (great help) and because it was the 2 of us, I actually took a break, which made it so that I could actually spend more time.
The sheer number of Unknowns is staggering for this cemetery vs Henri Chapelle and Margraten. David has been putting up memorials every day since May, and last count was a little over half of the Soldiers..... It's a job, for sure, but a job we both do with love. Not just to memorialize those that gave their all, but for the families, so they may know where their loved ones were while not in their care. Some may never be accounted for, and now, they too, will have a place among the fallen on Find a Grave.
The day started pretty much like I always do. I printed the list of photo requests by section and was going to go down the list, and do my thing, until I realised that there were so many not yet on that list, that it would become a cluster to keep track of the ones "done" vs the ones not plotted yet, so I changed gears for this cemetery. We each took a section, and started at row 7, and just went down the line, photographing the Unknown. We each got one section done, and it took us about 6 hours. Between us, we took 500 pictures, so I'm spending the next couple of weeks editing, cataloging, researching and posting. We did not cover 500 graves, because..... overviews, doubles because the first one got flubbed-up, sights that caught our eyes, and generally getting distracted by something, so, yes.... 500 pictures, not that many markers to post.
As with Henri Chapelle and Margraten, I enticipate that once all the memorials of the Unknown have a picture, I will have to go back to improve on some of them, but that's ok. It's a nice place to be, and even if it is just not to take pictures, I will visit again, and again.
Check out the hints and tips, because I talked to the Super-Intendant, and learned some new things, which also changes my way of doing research a little.... for the better :-)
For right now, I'm going to the zoo, so I will pick up where I left off, tomorrow, and add that information on research.
July 12, 2025
PS: I forgot to tell you something really cool! While I was documenting the Unknown Soldiers, a couple came up to me, and started asking questions and it was so gratifying to be able to answer them, give them a little bit of "extra" history about the cemetery and how they came to be, besides the solemness of the place by walking around. As it happens, I was standing at the markter that read: "Here rest in Honored Glory THIRTEEN comrades in arms Known but to God" when the couple approached me.
I had just gotten to that marker, and it took a couple of double takes when the gentleman asked me how that could be, that there were Thirteen Soldiers buried under one marker..... I'm still not quite over it, to be honest. I DID promise myself that I would find out, if/when they were identified, and to keep track of the newly accounted for on the DPAA website. I told him, that sometimes, the men found together, were buried in the same grave by the people that initially found them, but also, that the prison-camps would bury their dead prisonors in mass graves, so when the Quartermaster Corps found them, they would try to seperate them, but that was sometimes not an option, and the Soldiers would be transported as a group so there could be an attempt made in identifying them. If that was unsuccessful, the men would be buried together again... With todays DNA testing, and a different methodology for identifying remains, I told them, there is a fair chance that at least some of them will be accounted for, but when that would be, I could not tell. I told them I did not work for the cemetery, and was just an interested volunteer who wanted to do right by the Soldiers who did not get to go home, that I did research for those who asked, and for those accounted for when I could.
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