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I know those fields of Normandy, where American boys are running forward or digging in, as I write. It is a beautiful country at this time of the year with its large old farms protected from the wind by double rows of high trees, with the roads lined by poplars and the green pastures, the orchards, and the village churches, all different. Many have seen the Hundred Years War. Normandy will not appear as a foreign country to the Americans, the Canadians or the British; too many of them did sail from there, either with Duke William in 1066, or as settlers to the new world. The old people who stayed home, the hard-working peasants of Calvados and of the Lower Seine, will recognize them all right. They will show them, at Bayeux, the tapestry woven by Queen Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror, depict ing the men in the many flat boats who did the crossing, and the landing near Hastings, nearly 900 years ago. Boys from Normandy were my comrades when I served in the 30th regiment of infantry, stationed at Rouen,had my military training near these places, which are in the news today. I did lie flat in that grain, crawl under those bushes, keep watch by the edge of those woods, and carry the big pack along kilometers of the winding white roads, as a very young soldier dreaming of real wars to come. I am glad that Normandy should be liberated by American arms and American courage. I believe in our alliance and have given my best efforts to its service, and this is going to make it closer still. So my thoughts go to your boys who are treading on that ground for the first time, chasing the Bodies before them as they advance. My thoughts are with those who are getting hurt, and with those for whom today is the first and the last day of the war. Pierre de Lanux, June 6, 1944,
Newspaper Details
Middlebury Campus
Middlebury, Vermont, US
Thu, Jun 08, 1944
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jonathan B.
USA 06 Jun 2026
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