Thomas now regularly spends holidays with his former adversary in one of those real twists of life. Shot down over what was to become the path of the 79th's relentless advance, Thomas Harvell paid tribute to our party before settling down to swap notes with John Macdonald, in the fashion that only old soldiers do.

Then it was back onto the road and to another of the 6 United States military cemeteries on French soil. The Epinal Cemetery honors amongst its 5,255 graves, 377 members of the 79th Division including that of Captain Alexander Patch Ill, C Company Commander of the 315th Infantry Regiment, (and himself the son of General Patch, commander of Seventh Army), who was killed by German heavy artillery at Emberménil October 22nd 1944.