It is thanks to Doctor Louis GOURAUD from La
Roche-sur-Yon (FRANCE) that we met the B17-F
and its adventure written in a
book by Bertrand ILLEGEMS "It was called Big Red..."
The first time that we went, my son and me on the
spot of the crash landing, we found a few pieces of the plane on the ground;
it
is what encouraged us to intensify our research.
Generally, we like the planes, the planes which
fly of course; but if they fly so well today, it is because many fell,
civil
or military, pioneers, aviatrices, aviators, test pilot, courageous, bold,
daring. All these women and these men made ' the aviation'
and the aircraft
fallen, entered the ground or lost at sea, always deserve our respect and are
always for us "flying machines".
32 years only after Blériot, heavy B17 were
aligned against Germany, on 400 Flying Fortress launched in the sky for a
mission much did not return....,
30 B17 in less, which was frequent, it was
300 men who sometimes died in an fulgurating explosion... and in full sky,
others struggled in the flames awaiting the appalling shock of the crash
landing. It was the case of the B17-F of Aizenay.
Some men of this plane lived
in the fuselage their last moment, BIG RED was their last residence. Who were
they?
Blocked up in their equipment of machine gunner, suddenly
surprised by the fire on board.
The material that they touched for the last
time, it after which they howled not to fall,
that in which they hoped until
the end, of which they required to save them,
was this impotent and uncontrollable
plane. They finished like him....
Thus, this large green bird in 1000 pieces is
always present, each one of its parts is important for
us.
All that I have just written makes it important
for us , it seems to me that all these parts are alive of these 10 men
and I
feel much pleasure and honor to find them, to clean them and to identify them
because while doing all that I pays homages to these 10 good guys
and I always
fly with them in the sky of France.
Andre-Luc and Olivier GOARANT
