Relation with Lake (class): Lake Casualty Cemetery (LCC)  
Total nr. of casualties buried here (TC): 0 end WW2. Today 1645. 
Lake casualties, initially, end WW2 (LC-I): 0
Unknown today: 100, of which < 50 airmen.
of which unknown from Lake (LC-U): at least three.
of which unknown from North Sea (NS-U): > 4.
Initial burial site in WW2: no. 
Post war burial site for collection and reburial from other sites: yes. 
Cemetery with Lake casualties today: yes (LCE).



        
NIJMEGEN JONKERBOS WAR CEMETERY

On the 18th of September 1944, the city of Nijmegen (on the approach to Arnhem) was reconned by American scout Pfc. Ted Bachenheimer. Two days later his unit, the 82nd Airborne Division/504 PIR and the 30th corps of the British 2nd Army conquered Nijmegen and its bridge that lead into 'The Island' and Arnhem. After that, the area became a front zone for months. Nijmegen developed two wartime cemeteries, close to its field hospitals. Jonkerbos was build after the war as a large CWGC assembly cemetery. When it was ready in 1946/47, the 400 casualties from the two Nijmegen field hospital-cemeteries were cleared and reburied in the new Jonkerbos. 

In 1948, more war graves sites in the Netherlands were cleared and moved to Jonkerbos. From Venlo came the remains of 450 airmen. Oosterhout followed, also West-Brabant and other places. In 1952 came three churchyards from Ameland (Frisian island). With the transfer of all these cemeteries, Jonkerbos received many in 1940 killed North Sea casualties: Royal Navy sailors, Dunkirk victims and airmen from the coast, among them several Polish.





Dutch name cemetery: Jonkerbos Oorlogs begr. pl.  
Full name: Jonkerbos War Cemetery.
Address (usable for car navigation):
Burgemeester Daleslaan, Nijmegen.

For reaction or comments; send us an email,
see address and info at CONTACT.
Please use as subject title: 'Jonkerbos'.










In the period 1947-2006, aircraft wrecks were found and recovered from soft ground during road construction work, land winning projects, etc. Human remains were buried here in Jonkerbos (also on other cemeteries). From the Lake IJsselmeer region (Old Zuyder Sea) came bomber crews from Ypsecolsga (north-west of Lemmer), Wervershoof (Zwaagdijk, north of Hoorn), Wellington T2702 from the Lake (East-Flevoland), Stirling BF523 off Nijkerk (Zuid-Flevoland) and Blenheim N3593 from Amsterdam.  




















































  Jonkerbos Cemetery today. 





















































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Photo right: 
The new opened Jonkerbos Cemetery in 1947. In that period the grave markers were crosses. Some plots in the background are not in use yet.






















Scheme below:
Behind the blue dotted line on below scheme is shown roughly the position of the 1948-2006 reburied sailors and airmen from other cemeteries/wreck sites.

Below cemetery plan is a copy of today's plan on the CWGC-website. It is outdated because in plot 15, 19 & 23  the back rows are depicted empty (unused), but in reality these rows are filled since 1965. 

















































































Photo below: Plot 15, row J. The row with 7 non-identified RAF airmen, post war recovered or from a cleared other cemetery.
In Jonkerbos cemetery are approx. 100 non-identified casualties. Some 50 are non-identified airmen. It is possible that some can originate from Lake IJsselmeer from post-war recoveries, but this is not certain and under investigation. Update 2021: Three of the unknown airmen on this row 15 J (photo below) come from three wrecksites in polder East-Flevoland period 1959-1960. During WW2 these aircraft had crashed in Lake IJsselmeer (the old Zuyder Sea). 










































































Photo below: A view on plot 23, from row E towards back row J.
Here are 'recent' war graves of men found and recovered in 1952-1973. The Polish headstone of Sgt. Jerzy Pietrow (26 March 1942, 301 Sqn, Wellington R1590, IJmuiden) is well visible on row H. In the back row are two vacant graves on the right hand site. 

 


























































 © ZZairwar (Zuyder Zee Air War).