This is the North Africa American Cemetery and it is also in Carthage. It is the only American cemetery located in Africa. It holds soldiers, sailors, flyers, and army personnel, primarily from World War II. It holds 2,841 of our military dead but the wall of the Missing has 3,724 names engraved on it. This cemetery was dedicated in 1960, replacing several smaller facilities.

I learned quite a bit about the war in Africa and why the US was there. It was all new information to me but the things we learned made sense. For instance, at the start of WW II, the US only had the world’s 5th largest army. Our military was untested and Africa was an opportunity to get our feet wet, learn, and prepare for Europe. We had some interesting discussions with the man in charge and his Tunisian assistant about the war and various activities that happened.

This cemetery is well maintained and really beautiful. We met the American in charge and the head Tunisian assistant.

My father served very briefly in north Africa (Morocco) during WW II. He was on a destroyer but they had shore leave and he got designated as an MP. I asked to be the group member to place the wreath for our group.

The wreath was laid on the altar in the chapel that is part of this cemetery.

The cemetery had several areas with quotes from people during WW II, a missing man grave, and some really incredible murals of the war with maps and various attacks and routes that the Allies and Nazi’s took leading to battles.

We walked some of the cemetery and read many gravestones.