大象传媒

During my summer holiday this year, in brittany, we were staying at Le Croisic, some way west of Nantes, and set out about 9.30 to meet Philippe Waegeman, who had dome so much research for me, as arranged at the little car park outside the Pont-du-Cens cemetery at 10.30. This went off fine and we were all very pleased to see each other. We went across the road to the flower shop, where I bought two little potted plants, one for Jim and one for Tommy, the Uncle of Joan Isaac with whom I am in touch; he was the pilot of the Lancaster. Philippe had brought with him a small Union flag for Jim鈥檚 plot, and we duly placed this at the foot of Jim鈥檚 stone, with his flowers on top of it. After placing Tommy鈥檚 flowers, I photographed Andrew and Philippe beside his grave. Then Andrew photographed me and Philippe beside Jim鈥檚. I took pictures of all the headstones individually, which I had not done before. As I explained to Philippe, on my previous visit the rest of the crew had been rather a blur to me 鈥� Jim鈥檚 comrades 鈥� but since learning more they have all come to feel like family.

Then we drove to La Touriere, a tiny place where some bits of the Lancaster were found. Also there was an excellent view of the Loire-Atlantique airport, which in 1944 was Chateau-Bougon airfield, in German hands, and the main target for Operation Nantes. Philippe explained that it was named for the Chateau visible still in the woods from where we stood. He also took us back in time and explained which roads were and were not there in 1944 and exactly where the Nazis had put up a barrier across the road into VaD to prevent curious people who came over from Bouguenais getting too close.
We then went to a nearer vantage point to look again at the Airport, and I took a couple of pictures there.

Then it was time for lunch, so we followed to the family apartment, close to the river but sadly not with a view of it. We had aperitifs, managed some translated smalltalk, and I presented Philippe with a copy of my write-up of Jim鈥檚 life. Then we sat down to an excellent lunch.

Next we followed Philippe again to Ville-au-Denis, where a lovely collection of villagers was waiting to greet us as if we were visiting royalty. Wonderful old folk, very little English but we managed. We walked from the village street into the field 鈥� THE field 鈥� and I realised with a shock that if the plane had come down 100 yards further east there would have been no village. And there was the memorial, put up by the municipality in the corner of the field. Two of the ladies there, Philippe said, had seen the bodies of the 6 lying in the field, all fallen close together. That did for me; despite the ban by the Germans against any of them going near the field, and despite their parents backing that up, they had sneaked into the trees to look. I was sitting side by side with women who had seen Jim鈥檚 body, and I found it overwhelming. They are all so proud of the memorial and so glad to know the truth behind this event, which for 60 years they have known only as "the night the plane came down". Now they have the names of all the crew listed on the memorial, with a tribute in French and English. Well, no wonder I was weepy. But more was to come. First they extracted from the flowers in front of the memorial a bunch of corn stalks grown this year in that very field, and presented it to me.

Then we all drove a short distance to the Community hall for drinks. As we sat in a circle, a gentleman came up and thrust a plastic carrier onto my lap. Inside was a twisted metal pipe with bullet-holes in it. I looked at Philippe. 鈥淚t is a piece of the Lancastre,鈥� he said. More tears from me. I asked if the man wanted it back, but no, it was for me. I said to Andrew, 鈥淗e鈥檚 had this for 60 years and he鈥檚 given it to me!鈥� Andrew said that perhaps now the man knew why he had kept it.

When we left I shook every hand and said, 鈥淢erci. Tres gentil. Boulverse.鈥� And such-like. I gave the man who gave me the fragment two kisses, which he seemed to like. As we left the Deputy Mayor (I think) presented us with three bottles of local wine.

Philippe walked us to the car and we thanked him profusely for organising such a memorable day.

Afternote;

Philippe gave me a copy of Bouguenais; Les infos, no 137, Juin 2004. Inside is a report on various May 8th commemorations, but mostly given over to the rediscovery of the facts about our Lancaster. I roughly translate, 鈥淢adeleine Rousseau, who has lived always in Ville-au-Denise, remembered with great emotion that night when a wheel of the plane fell into the garden and a piece of motor damaged the roof. A Red-Cross worker at the time, she also accompanied to the cemetery of Bouguenais the (?depouille) of the bombardier whose body was not found until three months after the others. A commemorative plaque has been placed to actualise this memory retrieved from the shadows. The families of two of the British airmen will visit in the summer.鈥�

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.