The sky was empty at last. We came back to school with our schoolboys still amazed by this tragic event"
But another formation of around 150 heavy bombers flew over our village, this time towards south-west. We learnt after, they were going to St Nazaire and La Pallice. This kind of scene was not ususal over us.
I went immediately after on the crash site.
German soldiers were there and push the group of people away. As secretary of " Mr le Maire ", I was able to approch the blaze. Two bodies were in the flammes, probably the pilot and the co-pilot ; one of them had the head off, a scalp lay on the ground. The german officers laughed and took a lot of pictures.
I went near the fuselage still in good condition. Two bodies lay near flat on the ground. Four others were still inside, their blood everywhere.
One of them, the navigator Lt Charles Harrisson was near an semi open exit. A second laid at fifty meters. He was still wearing his flying jacket and his oxygen equipment. He seems to be young and his hands were so white and so thin. In the evening, another dead was found near the village of Maupertuis, leaving a body print on the ground.
Thousand of curious
The day after, at 0730 hrs, a german military truck brought the eight dead found and the two burnt pilotslaid on the straw and were headed to Dinan. Their flying jackets were burnt in a corner of the german airfield (a civilian airfiled nowadays). They were buried on June, 1st, in Dinard cemetery.
In the afternoon of the 30 May, a eleventh body was found at 100 meters west of the farm " Les Frais ".He was seriously mutilated, may be by the propelors during his chute. He was taken on May, 31st
The four engines were everywhere, one at " Semis ", another at Maupertuis, the third near " L’Echuel " and the last one near " Bon Secours ".
Souvenirs of Yvette childhood.
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Walking in the streets of Dinan, Yvette, 11, saw a german truck with a part of a fuselage. In front of the " Prefecture " (Administrative bulding of the administrative section of Côtes d’Armor), she exhanged looks with Herman Philbeck, the survivor. Yvette Rivoualan will always remember of his smiling meanning " it’s for you I did it ". With emotion sixty years later, Yvette saw the picture of Herman and knew about his fate as PoW in Austria. Herman died in 1997.
During the Sunday afternoon, thousands of people of the surrondings came to honour the airmen. A lot lay flowers. The german guards were very busy to avoid the crowd to go near the wreckage to take a souvenir. In the evening, they fired in the air to frighten them.
All the week, a lot of people came again on the crash site and especially on June, 3rd, the Ascension Day.
On June, 5th, the germans unscrewed the control panels and the radio set. The engines and others debris were taken on June 11 and 12. A lot of witnesses took some pieces of metal as souvenir. Nowadays, the people treasure these souvenirs like a shoe most probably belonging to Charles Harrisson.
