IN MEMORy by Pierre Vandervelden
The visit of Commonwealth graves in Communals Cemeteries & Churchyards in Belgium & France
TAILLETTE Communal Cemetery (Ardennes France)
Page 1 The Pictures
Page 2 More about Douglas's plane
Page 3 The Tribute Ceremony
Page 4 After the Ceremony (Under construction)
Saturday 22th October 2011 The Tribute Ceremony |
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Since years, the
dream of David Mole was to honour the members of the crews who had lost
their lives on the 18/12/1944 |
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The plaque is now
in place between the two graves |
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And a second one
on the village cenotaph nearby the church: "To the memory of the 14 Airmen British and Canadians killed on the 18 December 1944 over Taillette (Les Bernes) Two of them lie in the Communal cemetery" |
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Lt. Col. (I. R.) Roland Canivenq,
Chairman of The Souvenir Francais of Ardennes French Department and master
of ceremony |
Mr Jean-Michel Santerre, responsible
of the coordination of the Standard Bearers |
The Belgian Standard Bearer
representing the Chasseurs Ardennais |
The Italian Standard Bearer
representing the Alpini |
Air Commodore John
Maas, RAF, current British Defence Attache in Paris, and also an ex 10
Squadron RAF Flight Commander and Lieutenant-Colonel Marcel Cloutier,
RCAF, current Deputy Canadian Defence Attache in Paris between the Pipers
of the Somme Battlefield Pipe-Band |
|
Group Captain Tony Gunby from SHAPE, former Officer Commanding 10 squadron RAF | The 10 Squadron Association Standard Bearer, Dick King, former VC10 Captain with 10 Squadron RAF |
More than 30 Standard
Bearers are present |
|
Military and civilian
authorities and families members |
|
The Rocroi Music
Harmony is ready to play |
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The members of
Liberty Jeep in military uniforms and the Pipers are ready for the ceremony |
|
Harry Harris and
his crew of Discovery Channel is ready to film the ceremony |
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David Mole reads a speech in
honour of the fallen Airmen |
The Last Post |
Honours to the
Fallen |
|
Direction to the
cemetery |
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Which is too small
to contain about 200 people |
|
Ready for the second part of
the ceremony |
Mr Andre Bernard, Mayor of
Taillette, John Waldron's niece, Rachel Balen, John Mole's son, David
Mole, Mr The Sous-Prefet of Ardennes and Ann Mole |
Everybody can admire
our friends of Liberty Jeep http://liberty-jeep.info/ and of the Somme Battlefield Piper Band http://sommebattlefieldpipeband.fr/ |
IF You have a casualty picture, please send me a copy, I'll be glad to show it on this page.
IF You want a king size copy of this picture (300/900 ko - 2592/1944 pixels) please e-mail me.
Casualties informations come usualy from Commonwealth War Graves Commission, see links for more informations
Inmemories.com © Pierre Vandervelden - Belgium