Chart for Wars in each Generation
The village of Rouy-le-petit, Somme, Frances plans to honor Lt. Benjamin H. Hodges who died during World War II in defense of their village. Contact Jean Noel Pecheur Email
The airplane was a trainer -- Vultee BT 13A " Valiant " nicknamed " Vibrator" - Tallahassee Fl | |
On 20 June 1944, the 78th Fighter group was assigned an air support mission for US medium bombers attacking targets in the area between Cap Gris Nez and Compiegne.The group took off at 0520 hours and crossed into France at 625,then flew south. In the Amiens area, the group noticed contrails circling at 30000 feet above them. At 0705 ,the Group was attacked by more than 20 Me109 aircraft,which then dove to very low altitudes in an attempt to lead Group P47's over enemy airfields, which were heavily defended by antiaircraft guns .
The 82nd squadron Commander, Major Ben MAYO, destroyed one 109 and pilots of the 83rd and 84th squadrons destroyed two Me109's. Combat action continued between Amiens and Montdidier , before the Group returned to his base at Duxford,England at 0845 hours.
At Duxford is this commemorative plaques:
" Erected by American Air Forces Personnel to commemorate
two years of combat operations against Nazi Germany
while stationed at Duxford.
American pilots flew 465 combat missions from this airfield from 8
April 1943 until the Victory in Europe 8 May 1945. They destroyed
333 German aircraft in aerial combat and 343 while strafing
airfields.
This plaque is offered as a tribute to the courage of those
airmen and to the devotion to duty of ground specialists whose work
made these victories possible."
Memorial Story
You who go by this stele have a thought for Lieutenant Hodges.
Volunteer at the age of 21 in the American Air Force, he left Georgia, the state where he was born to fight for the free peoples.
On the 20th of June 1944 at five past seven, while he was escorting bombers, his flight of aircraft was attacked by German plans Messrschmitt 109.
Some people who were there said it had been a spectabular aerial fight The Thunderbolt P47D 42-26446 of Lieutenant Hodges was hit by the Germans, it went into a dive with a deafening noise and embedded itself in the peat bog as the place known "LeGrand Marais".
In September 1944 the US Army tried to exhume the pilot's body, they only found a tiny part of it. Officially Lieutenant Hodges lies in the cemetery of "Saint Laurent sur Mer" in Normandy. Here, you only have a copy of the stele you can see in "Saint Laurent sur Mer" Memorial. [Translated from French]
Memorial Stele
A moving ceremony was held at Rouy le petit with a hundred people on May 2012.
A member of US embassy was present.
You Tube Video of Service.
For more information see: 78th Fighter Commemerative Page
Photos contributed by Robert Brunson, younger brother of Dorothy Brunson Hodges.