Recogne German war cemetery is located in the hamlet of

Recogne Recogne ( wa, R(i)cogne) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Libramont-Chevigny, located in the Ardennes in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. Recogne is located a few miles north of Bastogne, in an area that saw heav ...

near the municipality of

Bastogne Bastogne (; nl, Bastenaken, ; german: Bastnach/Bastenach; lb, Baaschtnech) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Bastogne, ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It contains the graves of 6,807 German soldiers of the Second World War. The cemetery is situated to the east of the hamlet, and to the south of the road to Foy. It is maintained by the

German War Graves Commission The German War Graves Commission ( in German) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa. Its objectives are acquisition, maintenance and care of German war graves; tending to next of kin; youth ...

History

In the last winter of the Second World War, the Germans launched the

Ardennes Offensive The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

. They surrounded

but were unable to take the city. After heavy fighting, the Americans reconquered the area in January 1945.
In February 1945, they established a cemetery in Recogne, where some 2,700 Americans and 3,000 Germans were buried. After the war in 1945–1946, the remains of the fallen American soldiers were transferred to

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial is a Second World War American military war grave cemetery in eastern Belgium. It is northwest of Henri-Chapelle, about east of Liège. Dedicated in 1960, the cemetery contains 7,992 American war dea ...

. In the meantime, the Belgian authorities started clearing all German cemeteries in the area, and transferred all German graves either to Recogne or to

Lommel German war cemetery Lommel German war cemetery is located at in the municipality of Lommel, Belgium. It is the largest German military cemetery in Western Europe outside Germany itself. German soldiers who died during the World War II on the territory of Belgium re ...

. Therefore, the cemetery also contains graves of Germans killed in 1940 or during the occupation.
In the 1950s the cemetery was transferred to the

Sources

* (de
Internetsite Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge)
* (de

External links

German War Cemetery near Bastogne
– Bulge1944.com * World War II cemeteries in Belgium German War Graves Commission Bastogne {{mil-memorial-stub