Looking for cemeteries abroad? Scroll down to the overview by country at the bottom of this page.
Cemeteries abroad
Cemeteries abroad
When the Belgian army operates on a small stretch of unoccupied Belgium during the First World War almost all rearguard services and many hospitals are located in France. Countless soldiers die there, not only because of war wounds but, at the end of the war, also because of Spanish flu. Belgian dead can therefore be found just about everywhere: from the hot south, where soldiers with lung diseases revalidated, to the great plots of honour in Calais and Le Havre in the north.
France
Some 4,000 Belgians are buried in France, both fallen soldiers and civilian victims of war violence. The French State maintains their graves on behalf of the Belgian government. The tombstones are very diverse: from French crosses to local designs, over Belgian military tombstones.
The Netherlands and Great Britain
The Netherlands and Britain count far fewer Belgian casualties.
The Netherlands adopted a neutral stance during the First World War. Belgian soldiers who crossed the border after the fall of Antwerp were interned. Most of them died of Spanish flu, which also ravaged our northern neighbours. The largest cemetery is located in Harderwijk, where an internment camp was set up for the Belgians. During the Second World War, many Belgian soldiers were killed in the Rhenus-127 shipwreck: the ship transporting Belgian prisoners of war to Germany hit a mine near Willemstad and many soldiers drowned.
Belgian war casualties are also buried in Britain. Especially at the beginning of the First World War Belgian wounded were taken to hospitals in Britain and when they died, they were buried locally, as were soldiers who worked in munitions factories during the war and who passed away. Belgian Second World War victims who died on British soil were mostly sailors or soldiers from the small Belgian army reconstituted in Britain.