Size: 18.5 x 12.5 inches

This original WWI German combat map of the ‘Epinal’ France sector. This map is one of 45 taken off of a German major on the battlefield of ‘Rupt en Weurve’ in the St. Mihiel Sector on September 13th, 1917 by Lieut. Harry G. Sheldon of the A.E.F. forces. These maps are broken into sets of 4 being label A,B,C and D of each given sector and district. Putting these section together forms a large map. They are all common scale and can be placed side by side to fit. This map is labeled ‘Epinal 85D’ and is 1 of 4 maps for this given sector.

This map would have utilized and used in the Epinal sector also located near the towns of Nancy and the Vosges Mountains. This map features notable locations such as Epinal, Foret De Padoux, and Vaxoncourt.

After the failure of the French offensives in the Battle of Lorraine on 20 August 1914, the French Second Army was ordered by Joffre on 22 August to retreat to the Grand Couronné de Nancy, heights near Nancy, on an arc from Pont-à-Mousson to Champenoux, Lunéville and Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, to defend the position at all costs. On 24 August, Rupprecht and the 6th Army tried to break through the French lines on the Moselle from Toul to Épinal and encircle Nancy. After the Battle of the Mortagne, an attempt by the Germans to advance at the junction of the French First and Second armies. A lull followed from 28 August – 3 September, then the Germans simultaneously attacked Saint-Dié and Nancy in the Battle of Grand Couronné. After the failure of the Battle of Mortagne, the capture of Nancy would have been an important German psychological victory and the German Emperor Wilhelm II came to supervise the offensive. The German attack was part of an offensive of all the German armies in France in early September and a German success would have outflanked the right of the French armies from the east. Castelnau had to send several divisions westwards to reinforce the Third Army.