Wartime Family Reunion
Since this year is the 61st anniversary of the last year of World War II, I'll use more information from Blaine Beekman's three-volume set of books, "Unfurl the Proud Banner." This set of books is still available and consists of interviews with servicemen and women of Pike County during World War II, along with research information.
This week I'll feature events in France after the Allied Countries invasion in June 1944.
American soldiers poised for the breakout from the hedgerows. In the minds of most, the breakout would mean the Germans were on the run and the war would be that much nearer to being over. They wanted to get the war over so they could go home. One Pike Countian, waiting for the breakout had a second goal in mind; he hoped to find his grandmother. The story of Corporal Henri Logan's search actually began 25 years before, during World War I, Frank Logan, Henri's father, served in the American Army in France. He met Henri's mother in LeMans. The couple were married in France and Frank remained in that country after the war serving with the Army of Occupation in the AlsaceLorraine region. Henri's oldest brother, James was born in France.
In the early 1920's Frank Logan brought his young family back to Waverly. Mrs. Logan continued to correspond with her relatives in France throughout the years. When World War II began in Europe, communications between France and America slowed. After the fall of France in May 1940, the letters from Mrs. Logan's relatives stopped altogether. The area around LeMans was part of German-controlled France.
There was little in the war news to reassure the Logan's. The Nazis were known to have destroyed many of the French cities and millions had been forced to move to other areas by German relocation orders. It was highly likely the small village outside LeManns where Mrs. Logan's relative were dead.
Henri was drafted into the service and entered the air corps (then a part of the Army). He studied French at night in case he got to France. Henri was trained as an armorer and his P -47 (pursuit fighter plane) squadron was shipped to England in 1944. Then days after D-Day (invasion of France from England), Henri was transferred to an advanced fighter base about two miles behind Omaha Beach. He was on French soil, but a million Germans out of the French hedgerows (fences of hedges which provided many hiding places for the armies) and the breakout had begun. Henri's squadron was alerted that they would soon be moving. Out of several hundred potential site since France, Henri's commanding officer knew about his concern for his relatives and the officers ordered Henri to take two other airmen and go to LeMans to check out the site of the new field.
At 9 a.m on a morning in late July 1944, the three men started for LeMans and turned east toward the little village of Maison Rouge, the last place Henri's relatives were known to live.
Maison Rouge was a tiny village, little more than a crossroads. On one corner of the intersection was a small cafe, while a little store occupied the opposite corner. A French lady was standing on the corner. Henri leaped out of the jeep and greeted the lady in his best French. He showed the woman a picture of his mother and asked if she had ever known her. The woman said she did; that she knew the entire family.
Henri was almost afraid to ask if she knew what had happen to his relatives. He had come too far not to ask. When he inquired about his grandmother and his aunt, the lady smiled and pointed to a lady across the street watching the proceedings. Henri rushed across the street and spoke to the woman who listened to him in amazement. It was his aunt and she hurried to bring his grandmother. The next few minutes were filled with hugs and kisses and joyous exclamations. The whole village soon knew.
Henri's grandmother fixed the three soldiers a meal and then Henri sat down for a long talk. The other two soldiers stayed in the house, too,, that night, but the next morning went back to LeMans to find a spot for the air strip. Henri stayed on to visit.
That evening Henri's two companions set up a tent in Maison Rouge and the next week in the village. Each evening parties' were held and neighbors came in to meet the three Americans. The other two spoke some German as did several of the villagers, so communication was not a problem. Everyone would sing songs, talk and partake of fine wine. at the end of the week, the soldiers headed on to Paris to rejoin their outfit. The Air Force no longer felt it needed a base at LeMans. Orders had come through to move onto another area.
For Henri, his aunt and grandmother, it was a week almost beyond belief. Against all realistic odds he had found his relatives alive and well in the middle of a war zone. For a week, Henri found time out of the war to fulfill a very important goal. The next week he was at another base getting his squadron's P-47s ready to fly again.
This is dedicated to Henri, now retired and living on East Second Street, in Waverly, and to his sister, Margurite, in Piketon. James, the oldest passed away not long ago. Their father, Frank Logan, was a mail carrier and chalk-talk artist lecturer. both he and his French wife are deceased.
There are many more stories to be told from the books complied by Blaine Beekman.
By Jim Henry, Pike's Past Author
The Pike County News Watchman
March 2006
Copyright © 2006
Pike Co. Genealogy Society a Chapter of O.G.S.
P. O. Box 224, Waverly, Ohio 45690