COLONEL PATRICK DU TERTRE – Association "The French Will Never Forget" – Maurice RENAUD – Association "Amis des Véterans Américains"
UNVEILING OF THE AIRBORNE MONUMENT IN SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO THE
ALLIED AIRBORNE TROOPS OF JUNE 1944
OPERATION OVERLORD
JUNE 8TH 2014 – CHURCH SQUARE OF SAINTE MERE EGLISE
INAUGURAL SPEECH BY MAURICE RENAUD
A V A PRESIDENT
ARTICLE FROM THE UNITED STATES ARMY
On June 8th, 2014, the AVA (Friends of American Veterans) unveiled a new unique monument on the church square of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. This monument pays tribute to the valiant Allied paratroopers of JUNE 1944 who with their blood redeemed our freedoms.
The monument stands 2 meters high and is made of light grey granite. With appropriate unit insignias annotated with the number of those killed in action (KIA), we honor the following units:
United States of America: 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions.
Great Britain: 6th Airborne Division
Canada: 1st Parachute Battalion
SAS Brigade: British, Belgian and Free-French paratroopers
We are grateful to Colonel (Ret) Keith NIGHTINGALE for proposing this monument. To our knowledge, this monument is the only one of its kind in France.
