There are twenty French soldiers from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 at rest in an ossuary monument at the cemetery. From WWI, there are 427 French soldiers, 274 Belgian soldiers, nine Russian soldiers and 1 Chinese soldier buried in individual graves. As for WWII, there are 1,355 French soldiers, including 188 in the ossuary, ten Spanish soldiers, one Polish soldier and five Soviet soldiers, one of whom is in the ossuary. Five soldiers who died for France in Indochina are also buried at the cemetery.

In the French section lie the bodies of soldiers and sailors who fell during and as a result of World War I, particularly on the Eastern front: 1,024 French, 22 Serb, 18 Greek, 16 Russian and 1 Bulgarian combatant are buried in individual graves. The remains of 777 French combatants have been placed in an ossuary. In 1961, the southeast section was transferred to the Italian government, which placed in a columbarium the remains of 975 soldiers who had perished in the south of France during World War II and whose bodies were not claimed by their relatives.

An eight-metre high pyramid and two sphinxes were erected in September 1810. They serve as a memorial to Vice-Admiral Latouche-Treville, Commander-in-Chief of French Naval Forces in the Mediterranean, who died in Toulon harbour on 17 August 1804.

The tomb of Marie-Nicolas Ravier, captain of the Armée d’Orient who gave his life for France on 8 October 1917 includes the inscription: “In recognition of care given to his son, Marie-Nicolas Ravier de Dounemari bequeathed half of his fortune to the Hôpital de Saint-Mandrier on 8 January 1919”.

In the late 1950s, the decision was taken to build a cemetery in Luynes in honour of the soldiers of the French Empire who lost their lives in southeast France in the two world wars.

Work began on Luynes National Cemetery in 1966. It contains the bodies of more than 11 000 French troops killed in the First and Second World Wars: 8 347 in 1914-18, 3 077 in 1939-45.

The bodies buried at Luynes were exhumed from temporary cemeteries in the departments of Aude, Alpes de Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Hérault, Var, Vaucluse and Pyrénées-Orientales. In accordance with the law, families that requested the bodies of loved ones had them returned to them, to be buried in private graves, while the remainder were laid to rest at Luynes: 8 402 in individual graves and 3 022, unable to be identified, in three ossuaries. This process went on until 1968. The cemetery was officially opened on 27 September 1969, by veterans minister Henri Duvillard, a former member of the Resistance, leader of the Corps Francs du Nord du Loiret.
 

1914-18: the Empire comes to France’s aid

Right from 1914, France called on its empire to support the war effort, by providing troops, workers (nearly 200 000 men) and raw materials. A total of 600 000 soldiers were mobilised from across the Empire: tirailleurs, spahis and zouaves from North Africa; tirailleurs from sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar; and troops from Indochina, the Antilles and the Pacific. From the Marne to Verdun, Champagne to the Aisne, these men fought on the main fronts, including the Eastern Front.

The soldiers from the colonies arrived in metropolitan France via Marseille, while others passed through the port city on their way to the Eastern Front. The camp of Sainte-Marthe was set up in 1915 to accommodate the colonial troops.

Unaccustomed to the cold climate, these soldiers were susceptible to respiratory illnesses and frostbite. The violence of the fighting, the bad weather conditions and the poor hygiene of the trenches caused the deaths of more than 78 000 of them.

In winter, the colonial soldiers were withdrawn from the front and sent mostly to the South of France. The French Army’s many wounded and sick who were evacuated from the different fronts, and in particular the colonials, were also treated in the south. Despite the treatment they received, several thousand died in hospitals of the region and were initially buried in local cemeteries. Some 8 347 bodies (2 626 of them in ossuaries) were reburied at Luynes.
 

1939-45: the French Empire in the war

As in the First World War, France called on the troops of its Empire in September 1939, when France mobilised and declared war on Nazi Germany. Alongside their French comrades, the colonial soldiers distinguished themselves in many battles. Among them, the Senegalese tirailleurs (who despite their name came from across sub-Saharan Africa) fought particularly fiercely. Besides sustaining severe losses, they sometimes suffered reprisals at the hands of German troops who, exasperated by their resistance, hounded them relentlessly. Thus, they were the victims of summary executions, for instance at Chasselay (Rhône) or Chartres, where survivors of the 26th Regiment of Senegalese Tirailleurs were massacred, a crime denounced at the time by prefect Jean Moulin.

From July 1940 onwards, as certain territories of the Empire came out in support for Free France (in particular, French Equatorial Africa), countless volunteers from all backgrounds enlisted in General de Gaulle’s Free French Forces. They particularly distinguished themselves at the Battle of Bir Hakeim (Libya), in June 1942, against Rommel’s Italian and German troops.

After the Anglo-American landings in North Africa (November 1942), the French Army of Africa made its re-entry into the war against Germany and Italy. It took part in the Tunisian campaign, which culminated in enemy surrender in May 1943, liberated Corsica in September and, from November, played an active role in the Italian campaign, as part of the French Expeditionary Force commanded by General Juin. The North African tirailleurs, spahis and goumiers distinguished themselves on the slopes of Mount Belvedere (February 1944) and opened up the road to Rome during the victorious Garigliano campaign, in May 1944.

On 15 August 1944, two months after Operation Overlord in Normandy, the Allies landed in Provence. General de Lattre de Tassigny’s Army B (the future French First Army) consisted predominantly of African soldiers. Following violent fighting, on 28 August 1944 they liberated the ports of Toulon and Marseille. These deep-water ports were crucial to maintaining supplies to the Allied armies in France. Ascending the Rhone valley, the French First Army took part in the Battle of the Vosges and the offensive against Belfort (Autumn 1944), where goums and tirailleurs sustained major losses, owing to enemy resistance and bad weather. Even so, during the winter of 1944-45, these men liberated Alsace. Crossing the Rhine, on 31 March 1945, the First Army drove deep into Nazi Germany and entered Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

Most of the soldiers killed in the Second World War and buried at Luynes (3 077 men) died in the fighting to liberate Provence, following the landings of 15 August 1944. 
 

Within the walls of the national cemetery is a memorial lantern, which serves as the commune's war memorial. In 1921, after having granted - in November 1920 - the principle of a permanent plot for the soldiers of the commune who had died for France, the Morvillars municipal council decided to erect the commune's war memorial within the walls of the military cemetery. This memorial, in the form of an 8 metre lantern, was inaugurated in 1923. Crowned by a Greek cross, this monument therefore carries the names of the 32 natives of Morvillars who died in 1914-1918 and those of the five who died in 1939-1945. Twelve graves of soldiers originating from Morvillars surround this monument, arranged in a semi-circle.

In 1914, the fortified town of Belfort was a major part of France's defence. The 14 forts controlled a gap between the Swiss border and the Vosges. During the first days of the war, a new occupation such as the ones of 1814 and 1871 was feared. That is why a state of siege was put in place by the governor. More than 20,000 women, children, elderly, sick people and foreigners were evacuated to neighbouring departments. Equipment, supplies, buildings...everything was requisitioned as part of the war effort.

However, during the entire conflict, Belfort remained untouched by the major offensives. The front was 20 kilometres away. Daily life was however marked by bombings and the flow of convoys of the wounded. As the war continued and the combats became increasingly violent, the number of wounded continued to rise. Because of such an influx, the 500-bed military hospital was quickly overwhelmed.  The health services had to adapt, and requisitioned public and private buildings. And so the Dollfus Mieg et Compagnie spinning mill, schools in the Montbéliard area and the Rue de Châteaudun as well as the Sainte-Marie secondary school were transformed into temporary hospitals. Adolphe Pégoud, the French fighter ace with six victories under his belt, was transferred to one of these structures after being shot down over Petit Croix on 31 August 1915. He was buried on 3 September in the cemetery at Brasse, where he remained before being exhumed in 1924, when he was buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

Altkirch National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the Alsace offensive in August 1914 and during the Campaign for France in June 1940. Established in 1920 for the graves of soldiers who had been buried throughout the Belfort-Altkirch region and southeast of Mulhouse, it was developed until 1935. Covering 5,153 sqm, the cemetery holds the mortal remains of 1,734 French soldiers, including 139 in two ossuaries, together with 15 Russian soldiers from the First World War. 36 French soldiers killed in 1940 also lie at rest here.

After the Second World War, this cemetery was reorganised in order to bring together the bodies of 1,045 French soldiers and prisoners-of-war from the Haut-Rhin, Germany and Austria who died for France between 1940 and 1945. The bodies of 2,238 Frenchmen including 1,300 in individual graves, 45 Czechs, 19 Russians, one Briton and one Serbian lie here. Two ossuaries contain the mortal remains of 938 soldiers. During the First World War, nearly 25,000 French soldiers died on the slopes of the Hartmannswillerkopf, also known as the "Mangeur d'hommes" (Man-eater) or "Montagne de la Mort" (Mountain of Death).

In front of the cemetery stands the National Monument containing the bodies of nearly 12,000 unknown French soldiers in an ossuary built into a crypt, together with three chapels - Catholic, Protestant and Jewish.

Above the monument, there is the Altar of La Patrie. On its sides it bears the names of the cities which donated money to build the memorial. On either side of the entrance to the monument, two bronze Winged Victory statues stand guard, the work of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. The memorial is overlooked by the summit of HWK, where many reminders of the battles that took place here in 1915 are conserved, and which to this day remains a cemetery open to the sky.