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The Ardennes

There are 4 large American war cemeteries:

In Margraten - the only US Cemetery in the Netherlands (close to Maastricht) along the A2.
In Henry Chapelle - Belgium (East of Liège) along the A3.
In Neupré - Belgium (South West of Liège) along the E46.
In Hamm - Luxemburg.

From Maastricht through Liège direction Bastogne (A26 – E25).
After Liège you will find on your left hand side the Stavelot region:

La Gleize: in front of the local museum there is a Tiger II tank. The museum itself is not very special. But the tank is unique and VERY BIG!
Of course Coo, the River Amblève, the River Salm. (Canoeing, kayaking, Fishing, Waterfalls.).
Poteau: a museum that lets you cross through the area in an American halftrack or in a German SdKfz 250 halftrack (in a rather wrong livery). Dutch owners.

From Maastricht through Liège direction Bastogne (A26 – E25):

Halfway Liège – Bastogne there is a village Baraque de Fraiture. During WW2 a battery Howitzers was positioned here. One of them is still there, right along the freeway.
Houfalize. Nice little village in a valley. During the Battle of the Bulge a German Panther tank was shot down from the bridge into the river. Later on it was lifted and placed on top of the road at the entrance of the village. Many nice pubs. You will find a camping, also accessible for campers, just outside the village along the river.
Rachamps. Last year a tree was planted in front of the church by two veterans of Easy Company. The church figures in The Band of Brothers.
Foy, Noville, Recogne… theatre of a very hard battle by the 101st Airborne Division. The woods are still dotted with fox holes. All villages are to be reached by the A30, Bastogne – Houffalize.
Recogne is certainly worth a visit. If you take the exit from the N30 you find a German cemetery on your left hand. Many boys, born in 1927, died in 1944, just about 17 years old. A little further on you can turn left in the direction of “Ferme de Bison”. In short a Wild West farm. Please leave that alone. All the way straight on. Keep your eyes peeled for a traffic threshold! Small crossroads: straight on. Left a meadow with a lot of bisons/buffalos. Dozens of them, sometimes hundreds. If you continue along this road it will end up on a T-junction as a dirt road. Stop here and look into the wood. You will see dozens of foxholes from WW2 of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. This is the reason why Airborne veterans from the USA still visit the area.
Bastogne. Of course the most renown village from the area. In December 1944 it was completely surrounded by the countering Germans. Defended by the American Paratroopers (101st Airborne Division). Dozens of monuments in the town and hundreds of them in the vicinity. Each of the seven roads to and from Bastogne has a tank dome on the perimeter, the former frontline. On the McAuliffe square right in the middle of Bastogne there is a Sherman tank with a nice round hole in its left side as well as a Liberty Stone. (The route from the beaches of Normandy, France, has been marked by those stones. Of course the bust of McAuliffe, the substitute commander of the 101st, who answered the German ultimatum for surrender of the town with “NUTS”. The 101st, The Screaming Eagles” did not surrender, the town was never recaptured. Up till today this Division has a Bastogne Brigade.
Bastogne has a large museum: The Bastogne Historical Center, just outside town. There you will also find the Mardasson, a gigantic monument in the shape of an American star. You may want to climb that building over a winding staircase with a magnificent view over the city. Around the museum you find three tanks: a Sherman, an M10 tank destroyer and a German Hetzer. It is a museum with its own character, with two dioramas and many mannequins.

Diekirch:

The true museum about the Battle of the Bulge is to be found in Diekirch.
In front a Sherman tank and other artillery. The entrance has recently been reconstructed and the exposition is even more extended tan before. Tanks, vehicles, artillery, uniforms and an arsenal which really contains behind glass every thinkable weapon from the second world war. The rooms are decorated with the scenery of the various battles in the area. Very nice. The true museum of the region. Possibly the best museum of its kind in Europe. AA guns, pompoms, anti-tank guns, Dodges, jeeps, too many to list all of them.

Of course there is much more to be visited in the Ardennes and each and every village has its own story, its own monument and sights.
But the abovementioned locations are certainly worth your trip.

Text: Don van den Bogert

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