the make a wish foundation, the lobo tank busters, the ronald mcdonald house foundation
Some History of 71 Years Ago
By: Stan Jordan
All of this information was given to the Jordan family by Jo Shipley from Indiana. Over the next few weeks, I will bring you all of it.
The Wagon – A
Since 1998, the station hosts the National Monument of Escapees from the Deportation Trains to remember the dark years and events that occurred in the very place where this symbol now stands.
Sad Memory
It is a simple wooden wagon. For eleven years, it has been installed by the side of the Langeais station. By seeing it, those who take the train every day do not even point it out any more. On its side, a simple registration: Men 40, Horses in long 8. But at other times some 120 men were piled into the same cars. Established as National Monument of the Evaders of the Trains of Deportation and inaugurated in 1998, it is not installed in this specific place by chance. Because the events that took place here forever marked the hundreds of Langeaisiens who participated in both days, 6 and 7 August 1944.
From the beautiful, warm summer days, the breath of liberation settled on France. The Normandy landings took place two months ago and Rennes fell to the Allies. But in the afternoon, a train stops at Langeais. The Germans fled west and in their retreat, take over 1,300 political prisoners and prisoners of war to concentration camps. Their flight will stop here because the bridge at Cinq-Mars-La-Pile was bombed and the track is cut.
Les bénévoles de la Croix-Rouge a Langeais en 1944, (l-r): Mme. Deliillee, Juliette BOUÉ nee CONQUE, Christiane(?), Suzzanne CORMIER, Odette CAILTON, Renee LECUREUIL MARTIN, Jacqueline MARTIN, Helene DOMENGER, Jeanette CAILTON, Jeannine DIVAY.
The news spread quickly around the city: the prisoners are locked up in cars overheated by the sun, without water or supplies. The Langeaisiens then converge towards the station “with fruit, water, wine and food,” according to the testimony of Mr. Boisseau, mayor of the city at this time. After a discussion, the occupying army authorizes the distribution of food and water. Among the crowd, Odette Cailton, a Red Cross volunteer brings local bread. In the dairy where she carefully noted the facts of those historic days, she writes: “those poor people are crammed into cars in the heat. Rue de la Daudére is filled with people who bring food.”
Fatal Mistake
The supply continues until early evening. But about 20 hours (8:00 p.m.), silhouettes are formed in the sky. Odette sees “eight U.S. planes flying very low. They spot the train, go around, strafing with their machine guns.” The allies are unaware that it is simply a convoy of prisoners. One unit of Anti Aircraft Artillery, installed on the train, concealed by tree branches, gives the appearance of a convoy of troops and the U.S. aircraft opened fire. On the ground, it’s panic. More than a hundred prisoners take the opportunity to escape. But between the German soldiers who shoot the escapees and the American planes, it’s a massacre. 17 prisoners were killed, 70 others were wounded. In her diary, Odette notes, “An American died in my arms, poor boy. He was wounded in the abdomen. All night, we evacuated the wounded to Tours. I go in the morning at 7 o’clock. Said night.” And sad day. After around 15 hours, the fighter planes are back and attack what remains of the convoy. Two other prisoners died and 10 were wounded magnifying the terrible balance sheet.
The Germans then decided to abandon the train and carry the prisoners by truck to St. Pierre des Corps, where a new train awaited them. It will take them 13 days of a disastrous trip to reach Belfort before continuing in the direction of the death camps. More than half of the prisoners did not return.
More on this next week.
See ya!
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
We got up this morning as usual for early chow, but it was very foggy at 4:00 a.m., so we went back to bed. The fog held on until way after 10:00 a.m. Col. Bainbridge came over and we talked a lot about flying and combat, but he didn’t have anything new. He talked about General Patton and how good he was at advancing across France.
Lt. Barnes is back from his three day pass, so there were four P-51’s today. We were loaded with rockets and extra gas tanks. Patton has gone on past Paris and we needed extra fuel to get to the front now. I understand they are getting us an airbase ready for the allies in the east of Paris. The Germans ruined everything usable when they left the area a few weeks ago.
Since Patton is moving so fast, the allied supplied lines are getting very long. It took our engineers quite a while to get the harbors and wharfs so we could use them. This is the first part of September now and the war is going good for the allies. But, let me tell you, the Germans are not going to roll over and play dead.
This afternoon we were looking for targets east of Paris a few miles, and we got a little careless, I guess. Over the radio someone said, “An ME-262 at 11 o’clock high.” He was all alone and he came a-tearing into all four of us. We split up and each went a different direction and it threw him off a little. He fired his 37mm canon and blew up a part of Lt. Wilson’s rudder away. Then, he kept on going down with his drive and Lt. Wilson was doing his best to keep his plane under control.
Lt. Barnes over the radio told Wilson, “Go down over Paris and find the Seine River and head for the coast and then home. Maybe you will have to slow up a little, anyhow. We will see you back at the airbase!” Lt. Barnes stood his plane on its nose and pushed the throttle all the way forward and took after the jet plane. Barnes was the closest to the jet.
Barnes was gaining on the jet and he was busy planning on what he would do to catch the German plane. As the German was getting after the crippled P-51 flown by Wilson, and Wilson was very busy keeping his plane under control with the damaged rudder. Barnes figured the German would make a little right turn to get a shot at Wilson’s crippled plane. Barnes figured ‘now or never’, and he fired all four of his rockets about a split second apart. The jet was nearing the line to down Wilson, he wasn’t paying any attention to the following P-51.
Barnes saw his first rocket miss and go by, and then he watched the second rocket miss also. But, the third rocket hit the fuselage just behind the wings and blew the tail section off, and the plane started to fall as the pilot ejected and his shoot opened.
He will hit the ground close to the allied front lines, so he’s going to be a prisoner very soon. Anyhow, getting an ME-262 is still a good bargain.
See ya!
The Ronald McDonald House Foundation
By: Stan Jordan
When Dan Bowers ran his ad in the West Bend News about his Customer Appreciation Day a few weeks ago, there was a line at the bottom of his ad which read, “Please bring in your pull-tabs from your beverage cans, pop cans or fruit juice, and we will donate all of them to the Ronald McDonald House Foundation.”
Well, I talked to Dan and his wife, Traci, about that line and they told me a very interesting story. About three years ago, their son, Austin, was in a hospital in Cleveland for about two weeks and they needed to be there all of the time. Well, they were told to contact the Ronald McDonald house, and they did. After a small administration charge, they were accepted. They had a place to stay, kitchen facilities, washer and dryer and everything you would need during the day. Dan said, “We could not have been treated any better. We were there for the complete stay and all we had to pay for was that small administration fee.”
Dan said to me, “I told myself I was going to collect a 55 gallon drum of pull-tabs and donate it to the foundation, and they could collect the profits for them.” Dan and Traci belong to the National Tractor Pulling Association and some other groups that meet in Bowling Green, Wauseon, Fort Recovery, Arcola, and other places here in the tri-state area. Most of these groups collect these pull-tabs for Dan to help fill his barrel. Most every knows that the Ronald McDonald House Foundation will help you all they can when you need it most, and they are all free.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation
By: Stan Jordan
A few years ago, I had a great-niece that was very sick and could not get well. She was in and out of the Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Sara was about eight years old, and back in 1998, suffered from what the doctors called a Glioma brain stem. It’s a fairly rare problem in children generally 6-10 and adults 40-60. Once they start, they advance quickly. The hospital sent her home and said there is nothing more we can do for her. But, the Make-A-Wish Foundation had been notified of her condition. Those people came and asked her to make a wish – anything she wanted. Well, while she was in the hospital, she watched the movie about dancing with John Travolta called, “Grease.” She was impressed about dancing and she would like to see John Travolta.
By golly, they called John and he said he was coming east in a few weeks and he would gladly come and visit Sara. In the meantime, he sent some of his films and records for her entertainment. But, Sara’s condition worsened and she passed away before John came and that was in November of 1998. I know that was a long time ago and lots of people didn’t know about it. But, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is a true-blue foundation that do make a lot of dreams and wishes come true. As a favor to me, would you please make a donation to these top shelf foundations?
See ya!
