Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ST. LO, FRANCE LENGTH: Long
Quiniou was among the thousands of French people who turned out Saturday afternoon to thank the World War II veterans of the 29th Division who helped liberate St. Lo from the Germans on July 18, 1944.
As a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Quiniou greeted the two-week battle for St. Lo with hope. "I hated the Germans," she said. "I must tell you I still hate them."
Quiniou had watched German trucks roll through St. Lo loaded with her friends and neighbors on their way to be shot by the Germans.
A friend of Quiniou's, Jean Fromond, had been imprisoned by the Germans as a student. He explained his crime had been wearing the badge of Charles De Gaulle, general of the Free French army, under his jacket. Someone who he thought was a friend turned him in.
Fromond proudly displayed a watch that had been inscribed and given to him by the U.S. Army for his role in saving the life of an injured American paratrooper.
In the center of St. Lo, there is a monument to the town's citizens who were the victims of Nazi atrocities. In it are chiseled the names of 155 people who were executed during four years of German occupation and of dozens more who were deported to concentration camps or chased down and shot.
As it became more apparent the American soldiers were going to take the town, the Germans got worse, she said. In one instance, a Belgian in the German army came into the house where she was staying and said he was going to shoot everyone. But he was too drunk to do it.
"When I met the first American soldier [after the town was liberated], I wept," Quiniou said.
St. Lo, a medieval town with a Gothic church that took four centuries to build, suffered more than any other Norman town in World War II. The bombs and artillery fire that rained down during the battle destroyed 95 percent of the town.
St. Lo, which had 12,000 residents in 1944, has 25,000 now. It is the county seat of the Norman county of Manche and was important during the war because it was a crossroads controlling access to much of northwestern France.
The 29th Division was supposed to have taken St. Lo seven days after D-Day. The division suffered hundreds of casualties before St. Lo's German garrison was beaten.
During this fourth day of their stay here in Normandy, centered on the 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day, the veterans were moved, sometimes to tears, by the reception given them by the people of St. Lo. It was the most appreciative reception they've ever had anywhere, in France or the United States, one said.
Bob Slaughter of Roanoke said he had never felt as appreciated as a veteran in Roanoke as he did Saturday in St. Lo. Slaughter, who has been interviewed by many print and broadcast journalists, is scheduled to walk with President Clinton Monday on Omaha Beach.
Bernard Dupuis, the mayor of St. Lo, told the veterans he knew their visit to France was emotionally charged but that it was full of meaning for his townspeople as well because of the tragedy and destruction that had occurred here.
Saturday morning, the veterans took buses to Martinville ridge just outside of town, where some of the bloodiest fighting took place. They were stopped there by residents of Martinville, who rushed from bus to bus to thank them, welcome them and pour them Calvados, the strong apple brandy that is native to the region.
Later, the veterans were the guests of honor at a ceremony at the monument in St. Lo to Maj. Thomas Howie, a popular officer from Staunton, who was killed just outside town.
Howie was felled by a mortar barrage in an orchard just before the end of the battle. His body was carried into town under orders from Gen. Charles Gerhardt, placed on a pile of rubble and covered with an American flag to become a symbol of what the battle had cost.
Then came a parade, in which the veterans, now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, marched behind the present-day 29th Division band and honor guard down the Zuedu Neufborg, which was lined with well-wishers.
The street was decorated with American, British and French flags and signs of welcome. In fact, in every town you visit in Normandy this June, you find flags on homes, streets and businesses and messages for visiting veterans.
Marching along with the veterans in St. Lo, and holding their hands, were hundreds of French elementary school children. One teacher said the children were studying about the war and not unaware of the significance of the day.
The veterans carried gum with them to give the children just as they had given gum to countless French children during World War II.
Chuck Neighbor of Roanoke County was nearly speechless from the emotion of the day's events.
"I hope these children never have to participate in anything like we did," Neighbor said. "It's nice to see the innocence of youngsters like that and hope that they can retain that."
The war is very different for young people now than it was for her, Quiniou said. "They are not always interested in these stories," she said.
Quiniou recalled that she had met two young Americans from Louisiana who were visiting in France a while ago. She had tried to talk with them about the fighting in Normandy, but they had never heard of it and weren't interested in learning about it.
by CNB