^Xpmal ^American Cemetery unit Memorial The American Battle Monuments Commission 1982 10 Interior of Chapel - East End of the Memorial (Cemeterp ^Memorial LOCATION also takes about 5 hours. Adequate hotel accommodations and taxi ser­ The Epinal American Cemetery and vice to the cemetery may be found in Memorial is situated 4 miles/6.5 Vittel (30 miles/48 kilometers), kilometers south of Epinal, Vosges, Plombieres (22 miles/35 kilometers) France on Highway N-57, the main and Epinal (4 miles/6.5 kilometers). route between Nancy and Belfort. It can be reached by automobile from HOURS Paris (231 miles/372 kilometers) in The cemetery is open daily to the about five hours via Porte Pantin to public as follows: Autoroute A-4, eastward to the SUMMER (16 March - 30 September) Nancy exit, then southward on 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. — weekdays N-57, to the entrance road leading to 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. — Saturdays, the cemetery. Sundays, and Holidays Rail service to Epinal is available WINTER (1 October-15 March) from the Gare de TEst in Paris via 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. — weekdays Nancy, where it may be necessary to 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. — Saturdays, change trains. The journey by train Sundays, and Holidays Entry Roatl to Cemetery 3 Aerial View of Cemetery When the cemetery is open to the Cavalaire to Agay and thrust rapidly public, a staff member is on duty in inland. As advancing VI Corps the Visitors' Building to answer troops of the U.S. Seventh Army questions and to escort relatives to pursued the enemy, French units grave and memorial sites, except be­ landed and moved westward to­ tween noon and 3:00 p.m. on ward Toulon and Marseilles. Within weekends and holidays. two weeks both ports had been lib­ erated and U.S. forces had advanced HISTORY northward up the Rhone Valley to seize Montelimar, cutting off large On 15 August 1944, just a little over numbers of the retreating enemy. two months after the landings in Normandy, Allied Forces launched In less than one month, U.S. an amphibious assault to free south­ troops from southern France had ern France. Air bombardment in advanced 400 miles and made con­ preparation for the landings began tact with those from Normandy on in July and grew steadily in inten­ 11 September 1944 at Sombernon, sity. Preceded by Allied assault west of Dijon. Ten days later, when groups and U. S. airborne and glider these forces had joined in strength troops, under cover of heavy Naval near Epinal, a solid line was estab­ and aerial bombardment, the 3d, lished extending to the Swiss fron­ 36th and 45th Divisions of the U.S. tier. Progress in the next three VI Corps landed on beaches in months was slow and fighting bitter, southern France from Cape as opposition stiffened. Neverthe- 4 Location of Cemetery Features less, Allied Forces continued their across the Rhine and an offensive advance to the Siegfried Line and from the Colmar Pocket toward westward to the Rhine River where Strasbourg. After furious struggles our troops held the west bank except in bitterly cold weather, all of these for an area between Strasbourg and attacks were halted. Quickly, the Mulhouse known as the "Colmar American and French troops joined Pocket." forces to eliminate the enemy army The enemy launched his final in the Colmar Pocket; their mission major counteroffensive of the war on was successfully completed by 9 16 December 1944. Officially desig­ February 1945. The U.S. Seventh nated the Ardennes-Alsace Cam­ Army thereupon undertook a pro­ paign, it was popularly known as the gressive assault against the Siegfried "Battleof the Bulge." The U.S. Third Line to the north, while the U.S. Army to the north moved quickly to Third Army continued to assault the counter the threat. This required the Line and the enemy's flanks and 6th Army group in the south, con­ rear. Soon, the Siegfried Line was sisting of the U. S. Seventh and the broken and the remaining enemy French First Armies, to extend its units cleared from the west bank of lines northward to cover a much the Rhine. longer front. Against this line, the The final offensive of the U.S. enemy launched the second half of Seventh Army began in late March his planned counteroffensive on when it crossed the Rhine near New Year's eve by driving for the Worms and seized Mannheim. Saverne Gap in the Vosges Moun­ Promptly, the French First Army tains and following with an attack crossed behind it and took 5 South Facade of Memorial Karlsruhe. Preceded by aircraft that cemetery site. After the war, when constantly harassed and de­ the temporary burial grounds were moralized the enemy, Allied Forces being disestablished by the Ameri­ swept throughout Germany. As the can Graves Registration Service French captured Stuttgart and cut (AGRS), the remains of American off escape into Switzerland, the U.S. military Dead whose next of kin di­ Seventh Army fought through rected permanent interment on Nurnberg, took Munich, then drove foreign soil were moved by the through the Brenner Pass for its his­ AGRS to a permanent site, usually toric meeting with the U.S. Fifth the one closest to the temporary bu­ Army on 4 May 1945 at Vipiteno, rial location. They were then in­ Italy. terred by the AGRS in the distinctive grave patterns proposed by the SITE cemetery's architect and approved The Epinal American Cemetery and by the Commission. Free use of the Memorial, 48 acres in extent, is Epinal site as a permanent American situated on a plateau in the foothills military cemetery was granted by of the Vosges Mountains, 100 feet the French government in per­ above and overlooking the Moselle petuity without charge or taxation. River. It is one of fourteen perma­ Included in the site is a right of way nent World War II American military approximately 500 meters in length cemeteries erected on foreign soil by leading from Highway N-57 to the the American Battle Monuments main gate of the cemetery. The 5,255 Commission. The site was liberated American military Dead buried in on 21 September 1944 by the U.S. the Epinal American Cemetery lost 45th Infantry Division and a tempo­ their lives in the fighting across cen­ rary military burial ground was es­ tral France, the Rhone Valley, the tablished there fifteen days later. Vosges Mountains, the Rhine Valley Subsequently, the burial ground and Germany; they represent 42% was selected to be a permanent of the original burials in the region. 6 Design and construction of all with a U.S. Naval Task Force carry­ facilities at the permanent American ing two other Unknowns, one from military cemeteries on foreign soil the Pacific Theater of World War II were the responsibility of the Ameri­ and one from the Korean War. A can Battle Monuments Commission, similar ceremony to the one held at i.e., the memorial, the chapel, the the Epinal American Cemetery was visitors' building, superintendent's conducted by the Commander of the quarters, paths, roads, walls and Naval Task Force to determine service facilities. It was also respon­ which of the World War II Un­ sible for the sculpture, landscaping knowns would represent both the and other improvements on the site. Atlantic and Pacific theaters of that Construction of the permanent war. After the selection was made, cemetery at Epinal was completed in the Task Force proceeded to Wash­ the spring of 1956 and the cemetery ington, D.C. where, on Memorial and its memorial were dedicated on Day 1958, the World War II and the 23 July 1956. Korean War Unknowns joined the On the morning of 12 May 1958,13 Unknown soldier of World War I in caskets draped with American flags Arlington National Cemetery at the were placed side by side under a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. canopy at the north end of the ARCHITECTS memorial in the cemetery. Each cas­ ket contained one Unknown ser­ Architects for the cemetery memo­ viceman from each of the thirteen rial were Delano and Aldrich of New permanent American military York City. The landscape architect cemeteries established in the Atlan­ was Homer L. Fry of Austin, Texas. tic theaters of World War II. As soon as the caskets were in place, an GENERAL LAYOUT honor guard took a position at atten­ Six kilometers south of Epinal, a tion about the canopy. When the in­ winding road 0.5 of a kilometer in vited dignitaries had arrived, Gen­ length leads from the east side of eral Edward J. O'Neill, Command­ Highway N-57 to the main gate of ing General of the United States the cemetery. Marking entry to the Army Communications Zone, road on the right is a rectangular Europe, walked slowly past the thir­ stone on which is carved the U.S. teen caskets, returned to the front of Great Seal above the words "Epinal the canopy, picked up a wreath and American Cemetery and Memorial." proceeded to the fifth casket from Marking entry to the road on the left the east and placed the wreath upon is a low curved wall on which the it. He then drew himself to attention name of the cemetery also is carved. and saluted as taps were played. The About 90 meters inside the main simple ceremony of selection termi­ gate, a crossing road leads north nated with the band playing "Mise­ (left) to the superintendent's quar­ rere," as the pall bearers carried the ters and south (right) to the assistant Unknown selected by General superintendent's quarters and the O'Neill behind an honor guard to a service area.