Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial

The driveway to the Ardennes American Cemetery leads directly to the memorial. The memorial is a stone structure that contains on its side a massive American eagle and other sculptures.

Inside the the memorial is a chapel with three large wall maps with marble panels depicting combat activities of World War II.
On the outside of the memorial are 462 names of missing persons inscribed in granite tablets.

The cemetery covers an area of more than 36 acres and contains 5,329 graves. Most of these victims died during the 1944 Ardennes Offensive or are crews of bombers that crashed over enemy territory between 1943 and 1945 and could not be recovered and/or identified until later. The US did not want any American soldier to be buried on enemy soil, and after the war retrieved all soldiers buried in Germany. The soldiers whose names were not known were identified here. This cemetery also served as the location of the Central Identification Point for the American Graves Registration Service of the War Department(Central Identification Point for the American Graves Registration Service of the War Department).

The cemetery remained designated as a burial ground where later recovered American servicemen were reburied. This happened in 5 cases after the war. They are buried the last row of Plot B.

They are 3 soldiers who could no longer be identified and soldiers

PUCKETT John T., age 20, sergeant with the 1st Battalion of the 394th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry division, he was killed on January 15, 1945 but was not found until 1992 when excavating part of the battlefield near Elsenborn (then Germany, now Belgium). On March 30, 2005, his identity was confirmed through DNA research.

PETERNELL Paul, age 22, soldier 1st class with the 1st Battalion of the 121st Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantery Division, he fell on December 9, 1944 near Bergstein in Germany, his remains were recovered in 1981 and later reburied in the Ardennes Cemetery after identification.

Soldier 1st Class Peternell is also commemorated on the wall of the missing at Margraten American Cemetery. After he was found and identified, a bronze rosette was placed in front of his name as a sign that he had been found. Because the Ardennes Cemetery was designated as a cemetery where later found soldiers were interred, despite his name being on the wall of missing soldiers in Margraten, he was buried in the Ardennes Cemetery.

Today (2025) no soldiers are interred in Ardennes Cemetery. Soldiers found are taken to the US for identification and reburied there.

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Source

• Text: American Battle Monuments Commission en Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Peer Franken (1), Lennard Bolijn (2), Ed Lewandowski (3, 4), Arjan Vrieze (5)