ÉPINAL FRENCH NATIONAL CEMETERY
(La Nécropole Nationale d'Épinal)
Vosges
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 48.18365, Longitude: 6.45948
Location Information
Épinal is the main town of the Department of the Vosges situated on the River Moselle.
Épinal French National Cemetery lies behind the town cemetery of St Michael, which is on the eastern outskirts of the town on the north side from Épinal to St Die.
Historical Information
During the 1939-1945 War a large Prisoner of War Camp was established by the Germans at Épinal. This camp was used primarily for the containment of Indian Army soldiers. On the 11th May 1944, the camp was inadvertantly bombed by allied aircraft resulting in 64 casualties. These deaths make up the bulk of the commonwealth burials in this site.
Total World War Two Commonwealth Burials. 71.
Identified Casualties: India 59.
Unidentified Casualties: India 12.
La Nécropole Nationale d'Épinal 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.
World War One Casualties: France, 1,307, Russia 11, Poland 9. Total 1,327.
