graves

 

 

 

IN MEMORy by Pierre Vandervelden

The visit of Commonwealth graves in Communals Cemeteries & Churchyards in Belgium & France

pierre.vandervelden@pi.be

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
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
The plaque is now in place between the two graves
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"
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
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
David Mole reads a speech in honour of the fallen Airmen
The Last Post
Honours to the Fallen
Direction to the cemetery
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