On the Road: WWII pilot's sacrifice honored in France
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2012
- As part of our continuing series "On the Road," Steve Hartman visits the tiny French town of Les Ventes, that for the last 60 years has been honoring the sacrifice of an American WWII fighter pilot whose widow only recently discovered his fate.
Truly amazing story. My family visited Billie's grave this week. We are in awe of Billie's heroism and Peggy's undying devotion.
Amazing they never forgot, when many Americans have forgotten. Great story.
Judy Taggerty Much respect from france
@The governor then , bomb everybody
@The governor i go sleep , peace
One of your best productions, Steve. What a remarkable love story...Billie and Peggy,
the gratitude and love of the people of Les Ventes. This story will be with me a long time.
What a precious story and bless these people's heart.
I AM AN AVIATION EXPERT,MILITARY HISTORIAN AND HAVE BEEN A MILITARY MODELER SINCE I WAS 9 YRS OLD. I ALWAYS LOVED WWII AIRCRAFT AND WWI AIRCRAFT,GOD! DO I KNOW FIGHTER ACES AND FAMOUS BOMBER PILOTS FROM BOTH SIDES, FROM BOTH WORLD WARS. I AM SHEDDING TEARS RIGHT NOW. WHAT A STORY! R.I.P.HERO, MAY GOD HOLD YOU IN HIS ARMS.YOU ARE MY HERO TOO.
Rewatching this story for the umpteenth time and it still gets me. So beautiful.
Me too.
It's crazy to think how life was 70 years ago, you can be at war anytime. Glad she got her closure, he died a hero
My dad was a fireman before I was born. When he died so many people came to his funeral, so many and people wanted to meet me. Later in the funeral we hear a rumble, it was a fire truck. The new firemen came and guarded him and place a fireman cap on top of his coffin. My mom had a collage of all the pictures of my dad and they realized my that had the ID #1 of that fire department, they have been looking for #1, the first fireman and they were soooo happy. I am so happy for the people who remember us, that is why I like to compliment people when they are a live, we can not do it later.
A Pilot worth his Wings.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL
Peggy died this past spring. From her obituary: "She went to be with her Lord and Savior at the age of 95 on April 14, 2020, joining her husband, Billie, and all her brothers and sisters."
I was just watching this story again and was about to ask for an update on her,sad that she has passed but I'm happy her and Billie are together once again
@@peacemaker-du4hz Though she died over a year ago, she still has flowers placed on his grave several times each year.
May her memory and Billie's memory be a blessing.
So amazing.
Very touching!
😭😭😭😭😭 Mr Billy Harris is a real American hero. We love you sir. ❤❤🧡💛💚💜❤💛 Thank you so so much for your sacrificed. Mrs Harris, you're a real true love lady...XXOO 😘😘
The true love of a wife; the altruism of a honorable soldier; the thankfulness of people: unfortunately, forgotten worths.
I am glad this widow learned the fate of her husband and know that these locals who appreciated and took care of grave for all these years. She met the person who was first on crash scene and knows that they also grieved for this young mans life. There are still around 53,000 U.S MIAs from ww2 and probably should declare all KIA there are no remains left or lost at sea.
I have to agree with Brad Fulton. You did an outstanding job on this piece, Steve. Thanks for sharing this unforgettable story.
I live just near Les Ventes, heard of that story before
I also live here. I'm in Les Ventes. I'm American. The incredible coincidence of things is crazy, like that the day of Obama's election celebration - whammoe! - the lottery drew 666 in his hometown.
It probably would not have destroyed the village but had his plane crashed into the village, many innocent civilian lives probably would have been lost......he sacrificed his life by piloting his plane into a wooded area, to save human lives.
It would be awesome if more videos included cc for those that are hearing impaired!
+Janice Spencer ^This!!!^
I've lived in les Ventes for 20 years and first came here in 1973. Billie Harris is kind of part of the history of this place. Honestly people don't pay any attention to him, but the mayor's made it a big deal because there's something about honouring the dead and the Air Force is a big favorite in this area because we have one of the biggest French Air Bases just 15 km from here. Honouring airmen is part of the local culture. The French Presidnet flies out nof that airbase when he goes abroad so from les Ventes we look up whenever the big French presidential Airbus with the French flag on it's rear fin flies over and we comment: "Did you hear about the president going aborad today?" Just to illustrate the air-oriented culture of this little village. To give an example, I have two friends and their family living in the village here who are ex-employees of the Air Base. They are retired and belonged to the Air Force but keep going to the base for the off-time occupations and to see friends and colleagues. They're life-time airforce people and once you're in there you never leave it. That explains a bit of the military culture prevalent throughout this area.
The Americans made quite a lot of kids in the area from what people say. ROFLMAO!
Probably a few black kids too!!!!! That was new for France after the war!!!!!
The USA was a big change for France. You have to remember that France had been through five years of Germans occupying which was like being crushed by a sledgehammer, and then came the US invasion. So the little village here was caught in the crossfire. That's why they're intent on reviving the flames of the memory of the battles of the past so as not to forget.
Just hearing the Mayor's voice crack when she said his name was moving.....
Actually the main Allied Army just moved through Normandy, in the area where I live. The locals here didn't see any action nor troops. But there was an active resistance movement here and two villagers were executed for being part of the hidden Resistance. That's why the US airman Billie Harris fits in for the village because it's as if the resistance and the US Army worked hand in hand to overcome.
There another factor to know about Les Ventes: it's just 15 km from a major Air Force Base where the US Air Force was stationned after WWII. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vreux-Fauville_Air_Base
So, this area is linked to the Air Force and makes a lot of it's income from the Air Force.
This area is the usual daily airspace for the Air Force's practise flights. There are C-160 Transall planes circling all day long. So the Air Force is a biog favorite in this area.
General Degaulle kicked the US out of France in the 60s so the French feel a bit frustrated by that.
The village of Les Ventes feels a bit confused about kicking the US Air Force out of the Air Force Base because it's as if that was denying the memory of the ariman that was killed in their village.
So they don't want to be seen as the bad guys who are denying the debt the France owes the USA.
To speak about me, I've lived in France since 1964, and am married to my French wife. My father was a GI during the war and played in the band at an Air Force Base in San Diego during the war.
I'm Buddhist and have lived all my life in France now.
I haven't paid any attention to the Billie Harris story but I happened upon it now by chance. Someone's put up the pictures of Billie Harris on the Google page to the Les Ventes village. That's how I connected to this video. Just sayin'. Might interest people to know the back story behind this video.
I know several people on the video like the major and Sandrine, who's on the video. She escorted the Harris widow around from what she said. I don't know if this can be of any interest. Maybe to Peggie Harris.
I missed Peggie Harris' viist this year because I didn't think it would be relevant for me to interrupt the yearly gathering with telling my story to people. But I've given my testimony here so that's just as good, I think.
France is a wonderful place
😢
Crying!
The people in Les Ventes think it's a fluke that this guy falls out of the sky. Imagine you're living your life and just going along slow and this thing falls from the sky. The people of this place think it's their chance to be part of the big picture. They think it's like a miracle from heaven.
Mmmm so what do we have here? a 60 something year old budhist man who claims to have lived in France most of his life, yet he doesn't have any content in french, posts anti Obama videos and uses the name "Obama is Antichrist of Christian Prophecy aka The Beast". Exactly why should I believe you or even consider your opinion?
If you had known the whole story, he is considered a hero there because he opted to not let his plane just fall from the sky onto their village. He could have ejected, but chose to veer the plane into the woods to avoid the devastating consequences for others. That is why it is about them being a part of the "big picture."
Is of just me wondering why it took some 70 years for the militairy to inform the family?
They didn’t. Billie’s cousin requested the records and that how they finally got the right answer.
What's the life expectancy in France?
It must be pretty good
If you want to know, I was born the same year as George Washington and I'm still feeling pretty good ;)
Good story, but, she just found out but she's been making annual trips?
she probably can't afford more. also she found out in 2012.
Point was they played it up as if she just found out and it was an emotional first time visit.
Please find the part where it says that what they were filming was her 1st visit. I'll just wait here.
I'm sorry.
But I'm the 420 like
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