The Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France covers 113.5 acres and contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II in Europe, a total of 10,489. Their headstones are arranged in nine plots in a generally elliptical design extending over the beautiful rolling terrain of eastern Lorraine and culminating in a prominent overlook feature. Most of the dead here were killed while driving the German forces from the fortress city of Metz, France toward the Siegfried Line and the Rhine River. Initially, there were over 16,000 Americans interred in the St. Avold region in France, mostly from the U.S. Seventh Army’s Infantry and Armored Divisions and its cavalry groups. St. Avold served as a vital communications center for the vast network of enemy defenses guarding the western border of the Third Reich.
The memorial, which stands on a plateau to the west of the burial area, contains ceramic operations maps with narratives and service flags. High on its exterior front wall is the large figure of St. Nabor, the martyred Roman soldier overlooking the silent host. On each side of the memorial, and parallel to its front, stretch the Tablets of the Missing on which are inscribed 444 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. The entire area is framed in woodland.
(15 graves, 7 names on the Wall of the Missing)
Lt. William R. Baxendale
unknown – 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Plot E, Row 5, Grave 10
Lt. Richard J. Cotter
10 September 1921 – 21 July 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot B, Row 28, Grave 32
F/O Finn Firing
4 January 1920 – 31 July 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot K, Row 19, Grave 8
Sgt. Bruno Muller Gifford
unknown – 1945
751st Bomb Squadron
Walls of the Missing
Lt. Montel Charles Higgins
1916 – 1944
750th Bomb Squadron
Plot E, Row 8, Grave 31
Sgt. Keith W. Hill
1923 – 1945
751st Bomb Squadron
Wall of the Missing
Sgt. Robert K. Koerner
1918 – 1944
751st Bomb Squadron
Plot E, Row 23, Grave 35
Lt. G.F. MacDermott
unknown – 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Unknown
Sgt. William A. Marion
unknown – 1945
751st Bomb Squadron
Wall of the Missing
Sgt. Frank L. Nunn
25 October 1924 – 19 July 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Plot C, Row 15, Grave 92
Lt. Lawrence Oberstein
1922 – 27 May 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Wall of the Missing
Sgt. John R. Palladina
1919 – 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot E, Row 14, Grave 23
Sgt. Herve J. Paquin
1914 – 21 July 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot K, Row 21, Grave 33
Sgt. Cyrus Jasper Peppers
1925 – 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot G, Row 8, Grave 22
Sgt. Michael Pipock
1923 – 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Plot E, Row 13, Grave 16
Lt. Irwin C. Popham
unknown – 1944
751st Bomb Squadron
unknown
Sgt. John W. Popowitz
1922 – 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Plot A, Row 35, Grave 28
Lt. John C. Sampson
1 May 1916 – 19 July 1944
749th Bomb Squadron
Plot C, Row 10, Grave 93
Lt. Charles J. Schultz
1920 – 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot G, Row 14, Grave 16
Sgt. Donald D. Shumate
1922 – 1945
751st Bomb Squadron
Wall of the Missing
Lt. Gus Stanley Skalski
1920 – 1945
751st Bomb Squadron
Wall of the Missing
Sgt. John Raymond Wilkerson
1910 – 31 July 1944
748th Bomb Squadron
Plot A, Row 31, Grave 3