Belgian War Graves Tienen

At the cemetery on the Aarschotsesteenweg in Tienen are a number of rows with war graves. Most of these graves are graves of Belgian soldiers who died in May 1940. Most of these soldiers were killed in Belgium, there are however a number of soldiers who have been killed in France. Some graves are from resistance fighters who have been executed. On the cemetery are also Belgian war graves from World War I, which are marked with the typical Belgian military ornate tombstone, the graves from the Second World War, however, have a much simpler stone. This model is suggestive of the typical French military tombstone. However, there are a number of military graves with private tombstones.

Charles Weaver was trained to be a pilot in Bowden, Canada. During a flight in a Harvard Mark II on August 26, 1944 with his instructor Sgt. (Pilot) Richard Gordon Bennett they crashed. Both men lost their lives. They were buried at the cemetery Inisfail in Bowden, Charles's body was reburied in 1956 in Tienen.

There are also a number of war graves of civilians killed during the German bombings that have been carried out in May 1940 and during the Allied bombings of Tienen on May 25, 1944. The tombs are located between the graves of the military casualties from Tienen.

There is a row of graves of victims of concentration camps. On several tombstones is the name of the concentration camp where the victim died. There are also some graves from long after the Second World War, these are graves of former inmates of concentration camps. In the middle of two rows of graves is a monument to commemorate these victims. A few rows behind these graves lies a row of similar tombstones, these are also victims of concentration camps.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Luc van Waeyenberge