FOULENG-SILLY • 56 years later… The US Airman finds his saviors
Download PhotoNewspaper article telling the story of S/Sgt. Charles Johnson who evaded capture after being shot down with the "Royal Flush"/1st Lt. James Lavin crew on April 13, 1944. Courtesy of Dominique Malbrecq
3 September 2000
Translation:
FOULENG-SILLY • 56 years later…
The US Airman finds his saviors
56 years later, a survivor of the crash of an American bomber shot down at Fouleng and the niece of the commander on board have found the farmers who came to the aid of the survivors.
On APRIL 13, 1944, at 2:00 PM, German anti-aircraft fire based in Chièvres shot down an allied bomber returning from a raid on the factories of Schweinfurt. On board, ten American airmen. Six died; four survived the accident. Among them, Charlie Johnson, 19 years old, from Kentucky.
Fifty-six years later, he found the farmers who had saved him. All thanks to the persistence of Mrs. Schurman, niece of Lieutenant Lavin, commander on board, who died during the crash.
The drama took place in a setting of meadows delimited by the farm today inhabited by the de la Serna family, the Bonnet farm, the Willand farm, and the school of Fouleng.
In a haystack
"We saw the plane spinning in the air having lost a wing and one of its fuel tanks on fire. As soon as it crashed, we rushed to bring help to the survivors," explain Mrs. de la Serna, Delhoye, Willand, Bonnet, and Mrs. Dereau, today 90 years old: she continues: "My husband, Antoine Cristiau, caught one of the airmen in a haystack; he managed to save him at the nose and beard of the Germans who arrived right behind them. Fortunately, their dog never went near the haystack."
Raoul Mary, a young resistance fighter from Cambron-St-Vincent, for his part, saved another survivor. "After his parachute jump, he crossed the woods of Gratition and found himself in Cambron where we were working in the fields; we cared for him at the house before transferring him to Enghien, to a resistance center where he was able to regain the free zone."
A bar of chocolate
The most emotional of the Foulengois is without a doubt Ghislain Bonnet. At the time, he had personally taken care of M. Johnson. "My father was a prisoner of war in Germany. I was the only man in the house with my mother. On the day of the accident, M. Johnson jumped by parachute; he had a broken leg and was unconscious at the end of his jump. I knew that if he stayed there, he couldn't survive. The Germans arrived very quickly. We took a ladder and a blanket to the house as a cover to take M. Johnson; I am certain that it is thanks to my mother who had the confidence to entrust her only bar of chocolate to a young person who was helping her; that young person, it was me. Then, the Germans took him in an ambulance (we had to unburden him of his shoes and uniform). To hello M. Johnson; I would never have thought I would see him again one day."
Ghislain Bonnet explains himself with palpable emotion. Charlie Johnson is no less moved. "I remember very little of the accident. In the shock of the impact, I only regained consciousness when I returned to my senses enough to activate my parachute before falling back into unconsciousness until the moment M. Bonnet rescued me." Note that Charlie Johnson was taken and cared for at the Saint-Gilles hospital before finishing the war in a prison camp near the Baltic where he was liberated by the Russians. Back in his country, M. Johnson became a printer.
Fear of returning
When asked why he had not returned to Fouleng sooner, he declares: "At the time I was very young and this drama marked me a lot; I was always afraid to return and relive those painful moments." It was Mrs. Schurman, the niece of Lieutenant Lavin, who managed to convince me," he confides.
In 1948, while he was working his family's fields, Ghislain Bonnet found the identification plate of Lieutenant Lavin. He sent it to the American embassy which announced to him that he had not survived the accident.
Since then, no more news. Until a few months ago when a letter arrived at the town hall of Silly with the simple address "Mayor of Fouleng, Belgium." The legendary sense of service of the Post office did the rest: in less than five days, this letter, part of Indiana, arrived in the hands of Mayor (mayor) Christian Leclercq. The latter immediately alerted the various witnesses, organized the reception of the Americans as well as the visit to the site of the accident and the tribute.
In fact, Mrs. Schurman had not succeeded in finding the place of her uncle's fatal accident. It was thanks to research on the internet that she finally found the trace of the plane, the crew, and that she found M. Johnson, one of her uncle's companions. "If I could have come much sooner, I would have, of course, today, my mother, 97 years old, could not make the trip and pay respects at the place where her brother fell."
Dense and convivial
After the visit to the former farm of Mrs. Dereau, the discovery of the crash site and the precise location where Ghislain Bonnet rescued M. Johnson, the American guests and the various witnesses of the drama went to the community house. There, in the presence of the mayor, the aldermen, the priest, and representatives of the associations of Pensioners, Combatants and Resistance fighters, an official ceremony was held. After the speeches of tribute by Mayor Leclercq, Miguel de la Serna, eyewitness of the accident and former mayor of Fouleng, a tribute was also paid to M. Johnson and his brothers-in-arms. It was Karen Gnagy, an American living in Silly, who served as the interpreter for all these exchanges.
The emotion lived and shared in this intense moment, which saw local and global history meet, showed to what point the acts of war marked the history of our families until today and to what point the wounds remain alive even if we believe them buried.
DANIEL PILETTE (Author)
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