Le Radan/Bellefontaine

German troops established this cemetery in May 1917 east of the village of Bellefontaine near Tintigny in Wallonia. Today, 527 French and 298 German soldiers from various battles are buried there. Most of the casualties resulted from the fighting on August 22, 1914: In the “Battle of Radan,” more than 17,000 French and German soldiers—on foot and on horseback—faced off against one another with about 70 cannons. It lasted one day and left—according to estimates—1,050 dead and 2,200 wounded.

Three graves contain the remains of French cuirassiers who were killed on May 12, 1940, at the bridge over the Soye River.

Those who fell in the “Battle of Radan” were originally buried in nine cemeteries. Today, only this cemetery near Bellefontaine remains. In 1957, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. reinterred the World War I casualties from the other burial sites there.

The cemetery was built according to the plans of the Rhineland architect Ludwig Paffendorf, who, starting in 1917, served as the building construction officer in the civil administration for Wallonia and designed numerous military cemeteries in southern Belgium. The masons from Tintigny left their initials on the side walls of the obelisk: Auguste Jacob and Fernand Jacob. During the restoration in the 1950s, two mausoleums that had stood on either side of the obelisk were removed.

Since this is a German-French cemetery, the Volksbund manages it in cooperation with the French Embassy in Belgium. Maintenance of the site is funded by France.

In September 2023, UNESCO designated 139 World War I cemeteries as World Heritage Sites. Twenty-three German cemeteries are under the care of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.—Le Radan/Bellefontaine is one of them.