Britischer Soldatenfriedhof:

Der britische Soldatenfriedhof befindet sich an der Kromstraat in Sittard. Auf dem Friedhof befinden sich insgesamt 239 britische Soldatengräber. Davon gehörten 329 Soldaten zu den Landstreitkräften, 1 Soldat zur Marine, 6 Soldaten zu den Luftstreitkräften und 3 nicht identifizierte Soldaten. Viele der hier begrabenen Soldaten kamen bei den Kämpfen im Januar 1945 ums Leben.



Der Wegweiser zu dem britischen Soldatenfriedhof steht gegenüber vom Eingang zum britischen Soldatenfriedhof an der Kromstraat.


Auf dem Wegweiser steht folgendes:

Sittard
War Cemetery



Bild von dem Eingang zum britischen Soldatenfriedhof.


Am Eingang steht folgendes:

SITTARD
WAR CEMETERY

1939
1945



Blick vom Eingang auf den Friedhof.



Bild von dem großen Gedenkkreuz.



Bild von dem kleinen Pavillon, in dem sich 2 Steintafeln und hinter einer Klappe das Friedhofregister und ein Gästebuch befinden.



Bild von der rechten Seite im Pavillon, an der sich eine Steintafel befindet.


Auf der Steintafel rechts im kleinen Pavillon steht folgendes:

DE GROND WAAROP
DEZE BEGRAAFPLAATS IS GELEGEN
IS GESCHONKEN DOOR
HET NEDERLANDSE VOLK
TOT EEN
BLIJVENDE RUSTPLAATS
VOOR DE ZEELIEDEN
SOLDATEN EN VLIEGENIERS
WIER NAGEDACHTENIS
HIER WORDT GEEERD



Bild von der linken Seite im Pavillon, an der sich eine Steintafel befindet.


Auf der Steintafel links im kleinen Pavillon steht folgendes:

THE LAND ON WHICH
THIS CEMETERY STANDS
IS THE GIFT OF
THE DUTCH PEOPLE
FOR THE
PERPETUAL RESTING PLACE
OF THE
SAILORS SOLDIERS
AND AIRMEN
WHO ARE
HONOURED HERE



Bild von der Klappe im kleinen Pavillon, hinter der sich das Friedhofregister und ein Gästebuch befinden.


Auf der Klappe im kleinen Pavillon steht folgendes:

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CEMETERY
REGISTER



Bild von der Informationstafel die links neben dem kleinen Pavillon steht. Der Informationstext ist auf Englisch und Niederländisch gedruckt.


Auf der Informationstafel steht auf Englisch folgendes:

THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
AND THE ADVANCE INTO GERMANY
SEPTEMBER 1944 - MAY 1945

In the three months following their landing in Normandy the
Allied armies had defeated the German Army in France,
liberated Brussels, captured Antwerp and, in the east, reached a
line running southwards along the Moselle through the Vosges
to the Swiss frontier.

On 17th September, with the object of outflanking the
Siegfried Line, two American airborne divisions were dropped
in the Nijmegen area and one British at Arnhem to clear the
path for British Second Army. Speedy defensive concentration
and bad weather prevented full success; the crossing of the
rivers Maas and Waal were secured but that of the lower Rhine
at Arnhem had to be abandoned after an epic stand by
the British 1st Airborne Division assisted by the Dutch Resistance.

By late September the Allied advance had outrun the logistic
capacity to support it. The Channel ports, exept for Dunkirk,
were in Allied hands but unusable until bombing damage had
been repaired, and the lines of supply and reinforcement ran
back to Normandy. Antwerp, with the help of the Belgian
Resistance captured intact, was unusable so long as both shores
of the Scheldt estuary remained in German hands.

The south shore was finally cleared by Canadian I Corps on 2nd
November after a month of hard fighting. The clearance of the
north shore and Walcheren Island, completed on 8th November,
involved some bitterly contested combined operations by
British and Canadian troops. The mined approaches to Antwerp
were swept and the port quickly restored. The shortened
supply lines thus gained marked a turning point in the
campaign.

By early December, as a result of the Allied November
offensive, British Second and Canadian First Armies lay along
the Maas and Waal. American Ninth had reached the Roer,
American Third was pushing forward into the Saar and French
First Army had reached the Rhine at Mulhouse.

On 16th December the Germans launched their last counter-
offensive of the war against the lightly held Ardennes sector. Its
object was to recapture Brussels and Antwerp thus cutting the
Allies' supply lines. The advance, 50 miles at its maximum, was
halted on Christmas eve. On 3rd January the Americans, with
some British reinforcement, struck back and within 4 days the
Germans were withdrawing. Meanwhile British Second Army
eliminated the bridgehead west of the Roer and the Americans
and French dealt similarly with the salient south of Strasbourg.

The last main battle of the campaign began on 8th February
with an attack by Canadian First and British Second Armies
from the Nijmegen bridgehead south-east through the Siegfried
Line and the Reichswald into Germany itself. On the 17th,
American Ninth Army attacked north-eastward and, after
intense fighting, the armies made contact on 3rd March in

Geldern. To the south, by 9th March American First and Third
Armies had secured bridgeheads at Mannheim and Oppenheim.

 Preceded by intensive air and artillery bombardments the
passage of the Rhine was successfully accomplished by the
British and Canadians on the evening of 23rd March. By the
following evening the bridgeheads had been expanded to link
up with the British 6th and American 17th Airborne Divisions
dropped that morning to the north of Wesel. Further
crossings in strength followed and, by 3rd April, the British and
Canadians had taken Osnabruck and were approaching Minden,
American First and Ninth Armies had encircled the Ruhr,
trapping large German forces, and in the south French First and
American Seventh had crossed the Rhine. This battle marked
the end of co-ordinated German defence although improvised
battle groups continued to resist stoutly until late April.

First contact with the westward advancing Russians was made
on 25th April. By that time Canadian First Army had reached
the North Sea Coast and contained the large German force cut
off in west Holland. British Second Army, with a corps in
Denmark and another in Schleswig-Holstein, was on the Elbe
from its mouth to Wittenberge, southward of which American
First and Ninth Armies lay along that river. Further south
French First and American Seventh Armies were in Austria and
American Third had entered Czechoslovakia. Final German
capitulation came on 8th May and after five years and eight
months of war Europe was again at peace.

The Commonwealth servicemen who died in the campaign are
mostly buried in war cemeteries, and Commonwealth sections
of other cemeteries, along the line of advance. Allied command
of the air played a large part in the success of the
campaign and many of the airmen who died during operations
over Europe are buried singly or in small groups in village
cemeteries and churchyards where their graves are tended
with loving care by the local communities. The 1.062 soldiers
whose graves are unknown are commemorated on the memorial
in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and the missing sailors
and airmen on memorials at their home ports or at Runnymede,
England.

SITTARD WAR CEMETERY

The 229 British soldiers buried here mostly died during the
second half of January 1945 in the operation by British Second
Army's XII Corps to clear the small German-held salient west
of the Roer. There are also buried here a British sailor, 6 British
airmen and 3 soldiers of unknown nationality.

THIS CEMETERY
WAS BUILT AND IS MAINTAINED BY THE
COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

ARCHITECT : PHILIP HEPWORTH

Blick auf das Gräberfeld.



Blick auf das Gräberfeld.



Blick auf das Gräberfeld.



Blick auf das Gräberfeld.



Blick auf das Gräberfeld von der Rückseite.



Bild von einem Grabstein.


Auf dem Grabstein steht folgendes:




Alliierte Soldatengräber:


Diese 20 alliierten Soldatengräber befinden sich auf dem Friedhof am Vrangendael in Sittard.


Auf den Grabsteinen steht von links nach rechts folgendes:

14242802 DRIVER
P. FOWLER
R.E.M.E.
22ND NOVEMBER 1944   AGE 21
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WE LOVE YOU SO, MISS YOU YET,
IN OUR HEARTS
WE'LL NEVER FORGET.
MAM AND DAD

















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