Images: Theo van Vlient and Rosanne de Lange Photography via Digital Trends

Whether it’s in someone’s rusted out old barn, the back-country woods, or a farmer’s field, automotive graveyards have a certain kind of appeal for many hot rod enthusiasts. Sure, it’s sad that most of the cars that end up in places like these will remain there until they rot away, but the stories that these places tell are worth hearing if you’re ever so inclined.

We’ve seen some pretty crazy automotive graveyards in the past years, but nothing has a story quite like the Chatillon Car Graveyard in Southern Belgium that we recently got word of through Digital Trends. And although one of Digital Trends’ contributors has told the publication that none of the cars that lived in the Chatillion woods for 70 some years are still there, we couldn’t help but be intrigued by the story of how they got their in the first place.

While American servicemen were stationed over in Belgium during World War II, many of them began collecting classic automobiles as forms of transportation, as well as projects. But when the war ended and the servicemen were called back to the States, they were unable to take their prized vehicles with them, due to the expense it would be to ship the vehicles overseas with their owners.

According to Digital Trends, military commanders, in attempting to deal with the situation, ordered that all of the vehicles owned by military servicemen be left in the woods around Chatillion, a small village in Southern Belgium.

While some of the soldiers could have very well planned to return for their rides, or at least send for them one day, the funds that they would have had to raise themselves to ship the cars back proved to be too much.

It is believed that none of the cars left with their servicemen, not even decades after they were left in the forest.

Reports claim that at one point, over 500 cars were entombed in the woods outside Chatillion, many of which could have honestly been added to the mass grave over time (some of the cars found in images of the forest graveyard are not of pre-WWII origin). Over the years though, many disappeared either through environmental cleanup projects or collectors getting wind of the stash and helping themselves.

Now, after the cars spent decades in the woods, there is word that they no longer remain. But either way, the story these eerie images paint is quite the tale!