This week our gite guests left quite early which meant we had time to attend the May 29th Memorial service in Les Champs Geraux. On May 29th 1943 a B17 bomber crashed on the outskirts of Les Champs Geraux with the loss of 11 American crewmen. Exactly one year ago the village held a service to dedicate a new memorial for the 60th anniversary of those lost that day. In attendance we had the American Ambassador to France, the local Mayor and various other dignitaries, along with three American families who had relatives or close connections with the crewmen.
The site http://www.b17-29mai.com/ explains in more detail the events of that day and each of the crew members. There are also photos of the event one year ago.
The three American families all stayed in our gites over the weekend and one of them was Ray Kaskey. His father was one of the crew and he is a famous American sculptor. During his stay he said he was working on a series of Bar Reliefs for the National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. One of those reliefs depicted a B17 bomber and crew. Consequently he had a copy made and shipped to France and that now hangs in the town hall for the village.
Quite a number of people remarked on the similarity of the B17 Captain's surname, Hecox, to our own, Haycox.
According to the website http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ the National WWII Memorial, Washington, DC will dedicated today May 29th 2004 one year on from the Les Champs Geraux memorial and 61 years after the loss of the B17 and crew. Another spooky coincidence.
2 comments:
Test comment
Hello Ian,
I was wondering if your blog is still active, as i have a few questions. As your post states the town has had a ceremony to commemorate the crew of the B-17 that went down in the town. My relative george coates was among the 11 killed in the crash, and the website linked with the committee says they are still trying to find his family. I was wondering if you knew anybody in the town i could contact?
thanks
Post a Comment