Oise-Aisne Cemetery
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The Oise-Aisne Cemetery lies one and a half miles east of Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France and about fourteen miles northeast of Château-Thierry.
Plots A through to D contains the graves of 6,012 American soldiers who died while fighting in this vicinity during World War I, as well as a monument for 241 Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country and whose remains were never recovered.
Included among the soldiers here who lost their lives is poet Joyce Kilmer.
[edit] Plot E - the "Dishonored Dead"
The US Army executed a total of 98 servicemen in the European Theatre of Operations during the Second World War for various crimes. The remains of these servicemen were originally buried near the site of their executions, which took place in countries as far apart as England, France, Italy, and Tunisia. Eighteen of the total were executed at Shepton Mallet prison. Around 1949, all the remains were exhumed from their various burial places and re-interred in Plot E, which can be found behind the cemetery superintendent's quarters.
This private section for the "dishonored dead" adjoins (but is not part of) the main cemetery. Public access is difficult because the area is surrounded by a wall and is closed to visitors. Additionally, the 96 flat black grave-markers are inscribed with numbers instead of names, so it is impossible to identify individual prisoners without knowing the key. In any case, visits to Plot E are not encouraged.
The remains of two prisoners were subsequently exhumed and returned to the USA after the war. The first was David Cobb (executed at Shepton Mallet on 12 March 1943) whose remains were repatriated to Dothan, Alabama in 1949. This particular repatriation appears to have been an administrative error. The second repatriation occurred much later and concerned the remains of Private Eddie Slovik. He was buried in the special "dishonored" plot until 1987, when his remains were exhumed and returned to the United States for burial next to his wife, Antoinette.
