Rock Island Argus, Rock Island IL 9-22-1945

Wall of the Missing in Epinal American Cemetery with his name and a rosette symbolizing his body was recovered and reburied in the Ardennes Cemetery in Belgium.

PFC. MAURICE E. LLOYD
We had lost many men in the “Operation Nordwind” battle, either wounded, killed or missing. Among the missing was Pfc. Maurice E. Lloyd. He was never listed as killed in action, because his body was never found hy the U.S. Army Graves Registration. His foxhole buddy, Pfc. Paul
(Abe) Lincoln, knew he had been killed but unless a body is found, a soldier is listed as MIA. Lloyd’s name was engraved on the Wall of the
Missing, at the American Military Cemetery in Epinal, France. At the time the cemetery was planned and completed, it was thought that all the bodies of American soldiers who had been killed had been collected and buried or shipped back home to the United States.
More than 30 years later, an Alsatian father, his son and their hunting dog were tracking through the woods outside Lemberg. The dog sniffed around the area and led them to a log-covered dugout where they found the skeletal remains of a soldier. Wearing the uniform of an American
soldier and still holding the automatic rifle he died with were the remains of Pfc. Maurice E. Lloyd. When he was killed, he probably never
knew what had hit him. His identity was confirmed by his dogtags and a religious medal inscribed by his girlfriend, “With Love to Mo from Billye.”
When his bones were removed for burial, the mayor and citizens of Lemberg paid homage to him in a special ceremony. Later at a memorial service, his family participated in a ceremony at the American Military Cemetery in the Ardennes, where he was finally laid to rest.
According to the report of Franklin L. Gurley, the division historian, the patron saint of Lemberg is St. Maurice who was a soldier martyr
who defended the country in 303 A.D. The irony of another Maurice (E. Lloyd) dying and being discovered in this strange way brought home to the people of Lemberg the sacrifice of this American soldier. To express their reverence in a significant way, a monument was made and placed at his foxhole - the only such dedication of a foxhole in the entire war.
Several explanations were given why his body was not found, but one comes to my mind: After Lloyd was killed, his body was behind enemy lines for two and a half months before American forces chased the Germans back beyond Lemberg. We did not actually retake the old positions we held on 1 January 1945. We went far beyond them in pursuit of the enemy, who had pulled back to Bitche. If the Germans knew Lloyd was in his dugout, they apparently did not bother to bury him and stick a marker by his body. It was only by accident that he was discovered so long
after the guns were silenced.

Rock Island Argus, Rock Island IL 7-4-1976

Times Record, Aledo IL USA 9-26-1945 #1

Rock Island Argus, Rock Island IL 1-23-1945

Times Record, Aledo IL USA 9-26-1945 #2

Pfc Maurice E Lloyd
Burried at the Ardennes Cemetery