Liberation Route Location 8 - Nederweert War Cemetery

Nederweert War Cematery is a British plot located on Monseigneur Kreijelmanstraat. The cemetery contains the graves of 362 dead from the Second World War, from Commonwealth countries. The dead were killed after the liberation of Nederweert on September 21, 1944. The front line was close to the village until November 14 of that year and ran along the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal and the Wessem-Nederweert canal. In that period, casualties were caused by patrols, operations, shelling and also minefields. When the British had crossed the canals and moved to the Maas, dead were still buried in the area.

At the cemetery is a memorial cross (Cross of Sacrifice) designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield. It is made of natural stone and has a bronze sword on it. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the memory of 1.7 million Commonwealth casualties in 150 countries. The organization has established and maintains more than 2,500 cemeteries worldwide.

The construction of the English graveyard, as it is commonly called, began on August 16, 1945. This is a cemetery of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly the British Commonwealth (British Empire and Commonwealth). Soldiers of various nationalities are buried here, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

Soldiers who died in combat were often buried on site or at a local cemetery. At the end of the war, there were field graves of both the Allies and the German soldiers in the entire municipality. From 1945 a start was made with the central (re) burial of the dead. Many British are buried in Nederweert, Americans in Margraten in South Limburg and Germans in IJsselstein in North Limburg.

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Source

• Text: Bevrijding Nederweert, Niek Hendrix en Jermain Nichols
• Photos: Bevrijding Nederweert