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The Epinal national cemetery

La nécropole nationale d’Épinal. © ECPAD

 

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The Epinal national cemetery brings together the bodies of 1,307 French soldiers, 881 of whom lie in two ossuaries, 11 Russians and 9 Poles who died in the town hospitals opened during the Great War, as well as 71 Indians who died during the Second World War. Created in order to welcome garrison graves from before the war, this cemetery was successively developed between 1921-1924 then in 1935 in order to bring together the bodies exhumed from temporary military cemeteries.

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.

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Épinal
À 75 km au sud-est de Nancy, sur la RN 57

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-18

Rambervillers French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Rambervillers. © ECPAD

 

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Created in 1914, the national war cemetery of Rambervillers contains the bodies of soldiers who died during the Battle of Mortagne and those who died in 1918 in the town's military hospitals. It brings together 1,547 French soldiers, 881 of which were placed in two ossuaries, 24 Russian, eleven British, eleven Polish and one Chinese (grave no. 169) for the First World War, and two French soldiers killed during the Battle of France in 1940.

 

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Rambervillers

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Saint-Benoît-la-Chipotte National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Saint-Benoît-la-Chipotte. © ECPAD

 

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Nestling in the foothills of the Vosges, Saint-Benoît-la-Chipotte National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the Battle of Mortagne (24 August to 13 September 1914). Established in 1919, it was redeveloped from 1920 to 1935 to take in the bodies of soldiers exhumed from temporary cemeteries in the region between Rambervillers and Saint-Dié. It was completely redesigned in 1975. Covering a surface area of 7,070 sqm, the cemetery holds the mortal remains of nearly 2,000 French soldiers, nearly 900 of whom are buried in two ossuaries.

 

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Saint-Benoît-la-Chipotte

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Eléments remarquables

Monuments aux morts 1914-1918

Ménil-sur-Belvitte French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Ménil-sur-Belvitte. © ECPAD

 

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Begun in 1914 following the Battle of Mortagne, the national war cemetery of Ménil-sur-Belvitte contains the remains of 1,096 French soldiers, 197 of which were placed in an ossuary. In 1924, this site was rearranged to hold the exhumed remains from temporary military cemeteries in the region. On the initiative of the Abbé Collé, village priest and local representative of the association Souvenir Français, a monument was erected, opposite the cemetery, to commemorate the 13th, 14th, 15th and 21st Army Corps. In the parish church, a stain glass window also commemorates the commitment of these units. During the war, this priest transformed his rectory into an infirmary. From 1915, he created a museum with objects found in the surrounding battlefields. In 1944, this collection disappeared during the withdrawal of the occupying troops.

 

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Menil-sur-Belvitte

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Croix monumentale commémorative 1914-1918

The Rozelieures national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Rozelieures. © ECPAD

 

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The Rozelieures national cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died during the battles of the Trouée de Charmes (or Charmes Breach). Created in 1921, it is a testament to the extreme violence of the clashes of summer 1914 that took place in the Lorraine region. Developed until 1923 in order to bring together the bodies that were initially buried in the temporary cemeteries in the communes of Borville, Giriviller, Vallois and Maattexey, this cemetery holds the bodies of 1 154 soldiers, 915 of whom lie in two ossuaries. This place of remembrance is dominated by an imposing memorial lantern, to remember the units involved in the Rozelieures combats. Nearby, numerous monuments remind us of these battle feats.

 

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Rozelieures
Au sud de Lunéville, D 22d

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Eléments remarquables

Monument commémoratif "Aux vainqueurs de Rozelieures"

Gerbéviller National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Gerbéviller. © ECPAD

 

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Gerbéviller National Cemetery, in the locality of Grand Rupt, is the final resting place for 2,167 soldiers who gave their lives for France during the Battle of the Trouée des Charmes, in August 1914. It was established in 1920, at the same time as the neighbouring German cemetery, and testifies to the extremely fierce fighting that took place in the region to stem the German advance in 1914. In 1924, the site was enlarged to receive the remains of soldiers exhumed from the neighbouring cemeteries of Charmes, Haroué, Moyen and Chenevièvres.

The cemetery contains the individual graves of 728 soldiers, together with the remains of another 1,439 soldiers buried in collective graves, all from World War I. Three soldiers who fell during World War II are also buried here.

 

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Gerbeviller
Au sud de Lunéville, D 914

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The Bayon national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Bayon. © ECPAD

 

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The Bayon national cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died during the battle of the Trouée de Charmes (or Charmes Breach) and those of the wounded who succumbed to their injuries at the supplementary hospital n°2 in the Sœurs de Saint-Charles hospice. Created in 1914, this military cemetery brings together the bodies of 169 French soldiers, 96 of whom lie in individual graves. Two ossuaries preserve the memory of 69 soldiers. Alongside these soldiers who died in 1914-1918 lie three French soldiers, a Polish soldier and four German soldiers who were killed during the Second World War.

Within the cemetery is a war memorial from the commune of Bayon, showing the symbolic attachment of the local population to those who died, and who are also remembered by means of a stained glass window in the parish church.

 

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Bayon
Au sud-ouest de Lunéville, D 9

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Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918

Friscati French national war cemetery at Vitrimont

La nécropole nationale de Friscati. © ECPAD

 

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Located at the so-called Mouton noir, the national war cemetery of Friscati contains the remains of soldiers killed during the fighting around Lunéville or those who died in military hospitals. It is built on the site of a temporary cemetery born from the initiative of a teacher from Lunéville, Marie-Marguerite Wibrotte. Containing 3,713 bodies, this cemetery is the largest of the three military cemeteries in Grand-Couronné de Nancy. Three ossuaries preserve the memory of 1,683 soldiers, while 2,026 rest in individual graves.

At the entrance of the cemetery, a triumphal arch was erected in 1927, topped by an infantryman perpetuating the memory of the defenders of Lunéville.

Two plaques are affixed to this monument. The first pays tribute to the 37 soldiers of the Light Infantry 2nd Battalion who fell at Vaucourt. The second is dedicated to the American soldiers of 1917-1918 and the French Forces of the Interior resistance fighters killed during World War II.

At the summit of the cemetery stands a monument erected in the memory of Marshal Lyautey. The Marshal's ashes, until they were transferred to Invalides in 1961, were kept at this site, close to the château de Crévic where he lived before the war.

 

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Vitrimont
À l’ouest de Lunéville, D 97

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Eléments remarquables

Chapelle - Monument aux morts de la bataille de Lunéville - Plaque aux morts de 1940 et aux morts américains de 1918 et de 1944 - Stèle aux morts de Verdun

Reillon French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Reillon. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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Established after the fighting in August 1914, the national war cemetery of Reillon contains the bodies of soldiers who were killed in the clashes at Vézouze and the Lorraine front. It also bears witness to the extreme violence of the operations of summer 1914. This remembrance site contains the bodies of 1,324 French soldiers, 370 of which were laid to rest in two ossuaries. Alongside these soldiers are buried two French soldiers killed in June 1940. There are two monuments at this site to honour the memory of those who died in the service of the 223rd and 333rd Infantry Regiments.

The cemetery is adjacent to a German cemetery containing 5,428 bodies, 2,842 from the First World War including 1,873 in an ossuary, and 2,586 soldiers from the Second World War, including 330 in a collective grave.

 

 

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Reillon
À l’est de Lunéville, D 163

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Monument aux morts des 223e et 333e RI 1914-1918

The Leintrey national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Leintrey. © ECPAD

 

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Known as the "nécropole des entonnoirs" or shell-hole cemetery, this national military cemetery preserves the memory of French soldiers who died during the night of 10-11 July 1916 when five German mines buried under their trenches exploded. These shell-holes are the most significant remains of the mine war on the Lorraine front.

Nearby a monument was built in memory of Lieutenant Nissim de Camondo (1892-1917) and his observer, Lieutenant Lucien Des Essarts, who were shot down on 5 September 1917 on board their Farman 130 during a photographic mission over Leintrey. Nissim's body was first buried by the Germans at Efringen-Avricourt, then returned in 1919 to rest in the Montmartre cemetery. Devastated by the loss of his son the father, Moïse de Camondo, a rich Jewish banker whose daughter was deported to Auchwitz in 1944, donated his collection of 18th century works of art to France. The Nissim-de-Camondo museum in Paris is therefore testament to the weight of the mourning and affliction of a father overwhelmed by the loss of his son. At Domjevin, an imposing underground surgical ambulance station has been preserved. Dug out between July 1916 and January 1918 this hospital, which contained the latest equipment, was not however put to use.

 

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Leintrey
À l’est de Lunéville, D 19

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Eléments remarquables

Monument commémoratif aux morts du 162e RI