The old warriors came back on Saturday, most for the last time, to remember the most daring exploits of their gallant youth, to honor a little town forever linked to them and to shed a few tears.
Veterans of the U.S. 383rd Fighter Squadron and others from the 364th Fighter Group, now in their 70s and 80s, gathered in Remy along with family members and French townspeople to dedicate seven new stained-glass windows for the town’s 13th Century Church of St. Denis.
The 19th Century windows that formerly graced the church were blown out when the 383rd pilots in their P-51 Mustangs strafed a camouflaged Nazi train carrying nitroglycerin for rocket warheads on Aug. 2, 1944.
The resulting explosion blew the roofs off nearly every house in the village and demolished the train as well as the train station where the Germans had tried to hide it. One Remy civilian was killed, but possibly 400 Nazi soldiers died.
The veterans raised $200,000, from their own funds and through public contributions that poured in from across the United States, to buy new stained-glass windows after they learned a few years ago the village had been able to afford only plate glass replacements.
The grateful citizens of Remy organized daylong festivities in honor of their American benefactors, starting with a military parade through the town that included World War II-vintage American jeeps and a large contingent of French veterans.
The parade step of most of the elderly veterans was not as steady as it once was, and three of the Americans resorted to wheelchairs. But for a few moments, they relived the dreams of the past and the experiences that bind them to Remy.
“The message of this whole thing is to recognize the things that bind our countries,” said Brad McManus, 82, of Valley Forge, Pa., the former commander of the 383rd. “The French did so much, rescuing our downed airmen by the thousands, and this is a way of recognizing that.”
After the parade, the crowd trooped into the Gothic Church of St. Denis to dedicate the windows in a 90-minute religious service. A military concert followed, and on Saturday night, there was a fireworks display after the lighting of the windows.
About 100 Americans made the trip here, and Remy’s streets were festooned with American, French and European Union flags to welcome them.
At the dedication service, Paul Goldberg, 78, of Belleville, Ill., was reunited with Rene Loiseaux, who saved his life in 1944. Goldberg participated in the Remy raid, and eight days later he was shot down by a German Messerschmitt 109 over Montfort L’Amaury, near Versailles.
Goldberg bailed out, and Loiseaux, a forest woodcutter, and his father rescued him and hid him in their house for eight days until American forces liberated the town. “Rene heard about the ceremony and drove up here to meet me,” Goldberg said. “I hadn’t seen him since 1965. It’s wonderful to see him again.”
Remy, a tiny village in 1944 but a town of more than 1,800 today, is 6 miles west of Compiegne, which has its own place in history. It was in Compiegne that Marshal Ferdinand Foch took the German surrender in a railway carriage in 1918, ending World War I. On the same spot, Adolf Hitler forced the French to sign a humiliating surrender in 1940.
The American veterans were in Remy not merely to dedicate the windows but to honor one of their own who did not survive the attack on the German train. The explosion ripped the wings and tail off the plane flown by Lt. Houston Lee Braly of Brady, Texas, and he died as his aircraft crashed into the village.
There is now a Houston Lee Braly Crossroads memorial plaque in Remy, put up by the village several years ago, and Braly’s fellow warriors held a wreath-laying ceremony there. When French buglers sounded taps for Braly, some in the crowd wiped away tears.
Braly holds a special place in the history of the raid because his death brought out the heroism in the local populace. The villagers pulled his body from the wrecked aircraft and hid it from the Germans. They covered the body with flowers from their gardens.
Furious German officers ordered that no more flowers be placed near his remains. But the villagers defied Nazi threats, piling his gravesite high with flowers. Braly’s remains later were reburied in his hometown.
Inside the Church of St. Denis is a new memorial to Braly, a Mustang propeller brought by his wartime roommate and best friend, Roy Blaha, 79, of Homestead, Fla. “It took me five years to find a Mustang propeller,” he said.
Behind the propeller is a modernistic, stained-glass window that also bears a dedication to Braly. His photograph holds a place of honor just below the church altar, along with a single red rose and a brief biography of him in French.
“We were buddies all through the war,” Blaha said. “We stuck together. I was in Brady, Texas, for his funeral when his body was brought home, and I feel as though today is the culmination of a long experience, a kind of closure.”
Braly’s brother Walter and nephew Joel were present. “This is not just about my uncle,” said Joel Braly, a businessman in Houston. “It’s a tribute to the French Resistance. They did a lot too. There were many acts of defiance, and they honored France.”
Lt. John J. DuPont, 22, of Wisconsin was flying just behind Braly when his plane went down. Two months later, DuPont was killed when German planes shot down his Mustang near Schladen, Germany. His plane plowed into a barn and killed 40 cows on a farm.
Three of DuPont’s nieces came to Remy for Saturday’s ceremonies, and plan to go on to Schladen, near Hanover, to visit the site of their uncle’s death. They are Carol Peterson of Oregon, Wis., Diane Titus of Columbus, Wis., and Joan Sanstadt of Madison. Peterson’s husband, Phil, accompanied them.
Carol Peterson said she found it “overwhelming” to be at the scene of the 383rd Squadron’s triumph.
“It makes us shed tears of joy and sorrow at the same time,” her husband said.
Sanstadt said she could still remember the local priest coming to the family farm to tell her father that his brother was missing in action over Germany.
“It was the first time I saw my father cry,” she said. “He and John were especially close.”
John Bannister, 81, of Richmond, Va., said he flew over France the day before the Remy raid and the day after, but missed the attack on the train.
“I’ve really been looking forward to this,” he said. “I came here once before in the 1970s but this will be my last visit.”
Ed Chlevin, 78, a native Chicagoan now living in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and his wife, Gloria, also were here. Chlevin said he joined the 383rd, at age 22, a few months after the Remy raid, and twice had to make forced landings in France on subsequent missions.
He named his plane Gloria. “We weren’t married until later, but we’ve known each other 59 years,” his wife said.
Chlevin said: “This is the first time I’ve been on the ground in France since then. It’s an honor to be here. And, I’m here because it’s a part of my history.”
Vickie Dorgan, a Chicago bank employee, came to Remy, carrying the World War II dog tags of her father, Thomas C. Dorgan Jr. He served with the 324th Fighter Group, which fought in North Africa and Italy, and he died in 1969 when his daughter was 11, too young to have heard his war stories.
“Coming here was a chance for me to see the men who went through the war as he did, to find out what they are like,” she said, fighting back tears. “It’s an absolutely amazing occasion, just marvelous.”
