Footsteps of WWII · The Netherlands
Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and Memorial
Cemetery · Feb–Mar 1945
The story
Most of the men buried here died in February and March 1945 in Operation Veritable and the Rhineland battles fought out of the Groesbeek area, and the cemetery was sited so the Canadian dead lay close to the German soil where they fell. It holds 2,619 Commonwealth graves, 2,338 of them Canadian and 268 British. In the shelters stands the Groesbeek Memorial to more than 1,000 Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave who died in north-west Europe from late August 1944 to the end of the war, among them the Victoria Cross holders Sgt Aubrey Cosens and L/Sgt John Baskeyfield, killed at Oosterbeek.
What to look for
A large, quiet CWGC cemetery on a hill, with terraced rows of headstones, the Cross of Sacrifice and the colonnaded Groesbeek Memorial carrying panels of names. On clear days there are views towards the Reichswald and the German border.
Plan your visit
Free, open at all times. On the Zevenheuvelenweg, a short drive or cycle north of the Freedom Museum. Combine with the 82nd Airborne memorial nearby.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Freedom Museum (Vrijheidsmuseum), Groesbeek · 1 km
- Waal crossing memorial (De Oversteek), Nijmegen · 9 km
- John Frost Bridge, Arnhem · 20 km
- Old Church and Kate ter Horst house, Oosterbeek · 21 km
- Airborne Museum Hartenstein, Oosterbeek · 22 km
- Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery · 22 km
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Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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