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French Town Invites Virginia Sisters of Fighter Pilot Shot Down Over Normandy on June 10, 1944, to Special Memorial Service on June 10, 2011..· By Jim
Wrenn, Editor. Mouaze, France, a small French town, has scheduled a special memorial service for an American fighter-pilot shot-down over the town during the Allies' invasion of Normandy commencing on June 6, 1945. 1st Lt. William S. Marchant of Newport News was shot-down on June 10, 1944 while piloting his P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-plane in support of the breakout in the days following the Allies' breakout after D-Day. Despite still being under occupation, the town conducted a special funeral service for Marchant attended by approximately 500 residents. (His body was later moved to St. James Cemetery in Rennes, France.) Having recently learned the identities of his surviving sisters in the United States, the town has invited them to a special memorial service for their brother in Mouaze, France on June 10, 2010. The surviving sisters are Golden Marchant Forbes, who resides in Hampton, Virginia (pictured below) and Frances M. Hall, who resides in Locust Hill, Virginia.
(The full story plus the video embedded below and pictures displayed below are published in the Daily Press for Hampton, Virginia.) There are many interesting details about the story in the video embedded immediately below: The article in the Daily Press for Hampton Virginia also provides many more details about the heroic Billy Marchant, the small French town, and Marchant's surviving sisters. It's an excellent article. (To view that article, click here.) I have the honor of knowing Golden Forbes and having heard her narrative first-hand. (If the above embedded-video doesn't work, here's the direct link to it.) --Jim Wrenn, Editor, WrennCom.Com. Permanent links to this installment: http://wrenncom.com/CommentaryArchives/2011/20y11m06d07-01.asp.
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