Polish 1st Armoured Division

With the consent of the British government, the Polish 1st Armoured Division was created on 26 February 1942, on the orders of General Sikorski, head of the Polish government in exile in London. It initially consisted of contingents that had fought in the Polish army in Poland and France, together with Polish volunteers from all over the world.

The division was integrated in the allied military forces that would later serve on the Western Front. Commanded by General Maczek, the division landed in Normandy at the end of July 1944 and was attached to First Canadian Army, II Canadian Corps.

On 8 August 1944, the Polish 1st Armoured Division joined combat when it was deployed to the south of Caen as part of the 2nd phase of  Operation Totalise, which aimed to take the city of Falaise. Since the losses were heavy, and the attacks ineffective, this operation was stopped and replaced by a new operation, codenamed Tractable. The aim of this second operation was to attempt to fully surround the German 7th Army by the combined allied forces in Normandy. From 15 to 18 August, the Polish 1st Armoured Division liberated several towns and villages in Calvados and Orne after heavy fighting.

From 19 to 22 August, the SS divisions tried to destroy the Polish units located on the ridge of Mont Ormel (“Hill 262”), in an attempt to force open an escape corridor from their encirclement. The Polish 1st Armoured Division also had to face the attacks of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, which had managed to escape the encirclement and was now attempting to assist the other German units trapped in the Falaise “pocket”. The Poles had to hold their position at all costs until the arrival of reinforcements. On 21 August, they were finally joined by the Canadian 4th Armoured Division. The “Falaise-Chambois pocket” was finally closed. This victory was won at the cost of bloody battles and heroic resistance.

During the Battle of Normandy, the Polish 1st Armoured Division lost more than 2,000 men, either killed or wounded. The division then took part in the liberation of northern Belgium, southern Netherlands and Germany.

Specific features of the Polish Military Cemetery

By decree dated 19 May 1945, the Prefect of Calvados permitted the Canadian authorities to create a Polish military cemetery on land belonging to the Grainville-Langannerie municipality. Up to 1949, the British Imperial War Graves Commission was responsible for maintaining the cemetery, before handing over to the French State.

The cemetery consists of eight plots containing graves aligned in rows. These plots do not all have the same number of rows, but each row comprises twelve graves. With the exception of two graves, on which three crosses symbolize the tombs of respectively seven and five bodies of pilots killed in the crash of their plane. Their remains could not be separated.

Originally, the crosses were made of metal. In May 1954, as the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy was approaching, the French State decided to replace them with concrete crosses ornamented with plaques bearing the identity of the deceased, on the model of the French national cemeteries. The central monument was inaugurated in August 1954 in the presence of generals Maczek and Anders.

This Polish Military Cemetery is one of the seven foreign military cemeteries in France maintained by the French State.

There are twenty French soldiers from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 at rest in an ossuary monument at the cemetery. From WWI, there are 427 French soldiers, 274 Belgian soldiers, nine Russian soldiers and 1 Chinese soldier buried in individual graves. As for WWII, there are 1,355 French soldiers, including 188 in the ossuary, ten Spanish soldiers, one Polish soldier and five Soviet soldiers, one of whom is in the ossuary. Five soldiers who died for France in Indochina are also buried at the cemetery.

In 1914, the fortified town of Belfort was a major part of France's defence. The 14 forts controlled a gap between the Swiss border and the Vosges. During the first days of the war, a new occupation such as the ones of 1814 and 1871 was feared. That is why a state of siege was put in place by the governor. More than 20,000 women, children, elderly, sick people and foreigners were evacuated to neighbouring departments. Equipment, supplies, buildings...everything was requisitioned as part of the war effort.

However, during the entire conflict, Belfort remained untouched by the major offensives. The front was 20 kilometres away. Daily life was however marked by bombings and the flow of convoys of the wounded. As the war continued and the combats became increasingly violent, the number of wounded continued to rise. Because of such an influx, the 500-bed military hospital was quickly overwhelmed.  The health services had to adapt, and requisitioned public and private buildings. And so the Dollfus Mieg et Compagnie spinning mill, schools in the Montbéliard area and the Rue de Châteaudun as well as the Sainte-Marie secondary school were transformed into temporary hospitals. Adolphe Pégoud, the French fighter ace with six victories under his belt, was transferred to one of these structures after being shot down over Petit Croix on 31 August 1915. He was buried on 3 September in the cemetery at Brasse, where he remained before being exhumed in 1924, when he was buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

The town of Senones found itself in the firing line between 1914 and 1918.  The heavy bombing caused huge destruction and many civilian casualties. Consequently, Senones was awarded the 1914-1918 War Cross.

In 1914, faced with the proximity of the fighting, 14,000 of the 26,000 civilians fled the town. The elderly were moved towards the Haute-Saône, whereas the young orphans were welcomed in Mâcon. In order to ensure the security of the town, non-mobilised men welcomed the populations fleeing the fighting that was taking place in the sector of Raon-l'Etape and Badonviller.

Throughout the whole of the war, this stronghold would be subjected to numerous bombardments and became a town behind the front where warehouses, feed stores and hospitals were set up. These health structures opened in requisitioned buildings, such as numerous barracks, schools or civilian hospitals. 

In September 1921 the mayor of Epinal, Augustin Baudouin, asked for his town to be awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross): "Located a few kilometres from the line of fire which, at one point, was less than 25 km away, at the junction of numerous railway lines ending at Saint Dié, Nancy, Neufchâteau, Dijon, on the path of the troops going to the front, Epinal did not cease - throughout the duration of the hostilities - to be the enemy's target. (...) Epinal was constantly on alert throughout the hostilities; its inhabitants suffered both personally and materially; more than 250 torpedoes were launched at the town during the course of the fighting, not to mention the bombardments by machine guns and the inevitable accidents due to the defence fire from the square". In October 1921, the town received this honour, as it did in 1939-1945. In 1954, these two decorations were incorporated into the town's coat of arms.

Some of the soldiers buried in this cemetery were Commonwealth troops and came from India. Prisoners-of-war, these men were imprisoned at Frontstalag 315 in Chantraine near to Epinal. On 11 May 1944, an American squadron bombarded the sector. By mistake the barracks, like those of Chantraine, were for the most part destroyed. 500 Hindus died there, whilst over 2,000 left to hide in the forests surrounding Epinal.

Creation: World War I. Local hospitals.

Layout: 1924, 1934, 1935, bodies from the cemeteries in Neufchâteau and the vicinity in the southeast of the Vosges department (Contrexéville, etc.), Maxey-sur-Meuse and de Colombey-les-Belles, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department were brought together.

1955 to 1962, bodies from World War II were brought together.

1961, full renovation.