74th commemorative ceremony of the 6th February 1944 in Wissous

On 6th February 1944, the B-17 bomber “Old Man” of the 447th Bombgroup of the 8th Air Force, as it was coming back from a mission, was heavily hit by the Flak in the Paris area. The pilot and the navigator were killed. Therefore, the co-pilot and the bombardier took over the controls of the aircraft. They evacuated the 7 other surviving crew members, of which one of them was killed short after while parachuting. With the aircraft, they managed to avoid the inhabited areas but were killed in the crash on a nearby field. Today, a park in Wissous bears the name of the co-pilot, Arthur Clark.

Every first Sunday of February, the town of Wissous honors this crew in the presence of a delegation of the United States Embassy. This year, the Wissous Alumni Committee, Le Souvenir Français (a French association for maintaining war memorials and war memory), the Union Nationale des Combattants (a national union of service men), and the town of Wissous invited UNIVEM to this 74th commemorative ceremony to participate in with about twenty vehicles.

Starting in Satory in the early morning, the convoy was composed of two Half-Tracks, a Dodge WC51, two Dodge Command Car and a dozen of Jeeps. Vehicles were displayed to the public in front of the Wissous’ town hall during the mass. At 11, the convoy took the direction of the Arthur Clark park for a military cereminy in front of the American Memorial. A toast held in the city hall closed this ceremony. At noon, it was time to come back to Satory for a meal prepared by Mireille and Mauricette.