Category: Informations
American WWII veteran Thomas M. Rice, a paratrooper with the 501st Parachute InfantryRegiment of the 101st Airborne, turns 100 years old today. His hometown of Coronado, California, and the huge military community at the US Navy Base in San Diego, are joining efforts to celebrate this hero.
They are not alone. The city of Carentan les Marais in Normandy – France also wishes to thank its 1944 liberator. An imposing portrait was displayed to that effect on the Place de la République in Carentan as a tribute to this great American friend.
Tom had, as we remember, marked many spirits by renewing, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the D day landing, his jump of June 1944 on the edge of Carentan. Tom Rice’s adventures and peregrinations in Normandy in 1944, while commanding a mortar squad, are indelibly associated with Carentan. Tom was one of the three men in charge of the patrol on the night of June 6-7, guarding the south bank of the Douve River at the La Barquette locks. A few days later, it was in the Billonnerie sector that Tom stood his ground against SS Grenadiers.
Tom’s attachment to Normandy and Carentan was, however, slow to come to light. As he wrote in his memoirs of the Battle of Normandy (Trial by Combat), Tom had long been convinced that the French did not like the American soldiers who had caused so much destruction. «We ate all their chickens and destroyed their homes,» he said. On the eve of the 75th anniversary, Jean Pierre Lhonneur, Mayor of Carentan les Marais, suggested that Tom come and see for himself the extent of the gratitude of the Normans. Deeply touched, Tom now claims loud and clear his French lineage. He is indeed the direct descendant of Marie Catherine Avaligne and Pierre Serrot, two emigrants who left Tracy le Mont in Oise in 1791 to create the town of Gallipoli, Ohio. Tom now dreams of only one thing, to return to Carentan in 2022 for his 101st birthday to celebrate his glorious 101st Airborne with a new jump.
A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY:
IN THE PRESENCE OF AMERICAN VETERANS:
https://www.noecinemas.com/carentan/film/378148/
Few or no parties, parades, balls, conferences, concerts, festivals, parachuting, but ceremonies in restricted committee. However, in the spirit as in the will, Carentan and Normandy did not forget. The dates of the first days of June are forever engraved in history and in the collective memory.
This year, internet technology is once again being used to transmit and communicate the same messages of gratitude for the liberators, and to connect all those for whom the sacrifices made 77 years ago mean something.
The 77th anniversary of D-Day will be commemorated in a form far removed from the one usually offered to the inhabitants of Carentan and the thousands of visitors, as evidenced by this poster, which features one of the many emblematic images of the liberation, the awarding of the Silver Star to the four Carentan colonels by General Maxwell Taylor on June 15, 1944.
The website carentan1944.com summarizes in its many sections the legacy of 77 years of memories, gratitude and friendship between nations. Stay connected with us to follow the 77th D-Day Anniversary !
Jodi Martin, granddaughter of G/506 PIR veteran James Pee Wee Martin jumped yesterday in Xenia, Ohio to celebrate her hero grandfather’s 100th birthday. She jumped with the Star Spangled banner and the Norman leopards from the flag given to Tom Rice (C/501st) last year by Jean Pierre Lhonneur, Mayor of Carentan les Marais. Tom will also celebrate his 100th birthday this year…
Clément Horvath, a 31-year-old author from Tours,France, will present on Tuesday 14 July at the shop “la petite Musette” Volume 2 of his book “Till Victory” which retraces the Second World War through the unpublished letters of allied soldiers. Clément has spent a good fifteen years collecting the correspondence of several dozen Allied soldiers, British, Canadian and American, engaged in the Second World War.
The second volume has just been published. From the beaches of Normandy to the ravaged villages of Germany, through the Dutch polders and the snow of the Ardennes, we discover the journeys of some forty American, British, Canadian or French soldiers through their intimate letters written in the heart of the European battlefields. To illustrate these period accounts, published for the first time, numerous relics, original uniforms and personal photographs are presented.
Clément Horvath holds a Master’s degree in service marketing. He first worked in advertising and marketing in France and Denmark before joining the “My-Serious-Game” team (a company in Tours that creates fun training programs) where he is community manager.
“Little by little, I understood all that these soldiers had done, the meaning of their combat, their sacrifice so that our generations would not live under any diktat. I just wanted to say thank you to them. Thank you for allowing me to live in a free world. »
The book is also available in French.
