On French military restricted property of Fort Driant; visits can be arranged by contacting the Le Fort Driant (Feste Kronprinz)/Amicale du Fort Driant (Friends of Fort Driant) Group (https://www.facebook.com/fortdriant)

Email: amicalefortdriant@gmail.com

A concrete memorial with a WW2 American helmet on top; a small plaque is attached to the front of the memorial.

The memorial remembers two US soldiers of the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division who were killed in action on October 7, 1944 during the attack on Fort Driant.  The two soldiers, Second Lieutenant Julien Goell and Technical Sergeant 5 Joseph Leano of Company B, 1st Battalion 10th Infantry Regiment were listed as Missing in Action and discovered at this location in 1996. The attack on Fort Driant was part of the larger Battle for Metz from September to December 1944.

They are listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in St. Avold, France. When an individual's remains have been accounted for by the U.S. Department of Defense, a rosette is placed next to the name on the Wall/Tablet/Court of the Missing to mark that the person now rests in a known gravesite.

Goell is buried in Arlington National Cemetery where Leano is remembered with him; Leano is buried in his hometown in New York where Goell is also remembered on a cenotaph.

From the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Website:

On July 2, 2001, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Technician Fifth Grade Joseph A. Leano, missing from World War II.

Technician Fifth Grade Leano, who entered the U.S. Army from New York, served as a medic in Company B, 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division. In late September 1944, the 5th Infantry Division took part in Operation Thunderbolt, a combined air-and-ground offensive to seize the enemy-held city of Metz, France. On October 7, 1st Platoon, Company B participated in an attack on Fort Driant. During the attack, the platoon was surrounded and came under fire. T5 Leano was killed by small arms fire, but his body was unable to be recovered when the fort came under allied control in December 1944. Fierce combat in the area prevented the recovery of his body at the time. In 1996, a French national located a potential grave-site near Fort Driant, and personnel from the U.S. Army Mortuary in Germany traveled to the site and recovered human remains. These remains were later identified as those of T5 Leano.

Special thanks to Le Fort Driant (Feste Kronprinz)/Amicale du Fort Driant (Friends of Fort Driant) Group for their efforts to preserve the fort and remember this 1944 battle.

The text on the plaque is written in French and English.  The English reads:

IN MEMORY OF:

2LT Julien GOELL

T/5 Joseph A. LEANO

Killed and buried here on October 7, 1944

Found in 1996.