Metz. Do you know what object made it possible to find the trace of an American soldier liberating Magny?

The story is worthy of a film. Arnaud Dal Pian, president of the Metz association at war, is 26 years old. But, in 2017, he was already passionate about history. At the time, he came across a house in repair in his district of Metz-Magny. “Everyone told a legend about the place. The American soldiers would have stayed there in 1944, during the release of Metz. I thought about it: my grandmother, who has always lived in Magny, told me these episodes where the soldiers found refuge with the locals. »»

While the surveyors work on catering, Arnaud obtains authorization to search the attic. “In a ball, near a beam, I find a sub-poll in the American army. He is flocked with a number and a name: Roy Barton Gentry. Arnaud embarks on information on the soldier. Roy Barton Gentry belonged to the artillerymen of the 5th American infantry division which participated in the liberation of Magny. “Subsequently, an American newspaper made an article on the subject. Then I was contacted by an individual, a few years later, via social networks: it was Tim Gentry, grandson of the American sergeant who had released Magny. »»

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A few months ago, the grandson’s trip

Time flows. Arnaud and Tim remain in episodically contact. “In November 2024, with the Association Metz at War, we organized a reconstruction of a cannon position in Magny. These were the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, it was necessary to mark the occasion. In a usual exchange, Arnaud sends a message to Tim, promising him photos of the event. “We were a week before the celebration. Tim Gentry said to me: I’m going to come with my family. From Georgia to Moselle, as if it was taking the bus!

“The D -Day, Tim and his family were there. He cried when I showed him the t-shirt of his grandfather, which still smelled the characteristic smell of the powder. In wise collectors, the members of the Association Metz at war know how to keep objects. “The sub-poll remained in our collections in Moselle,” says Arnaud Dal Pian. We must tell the story of this pioneer of Liberation to the inhabitants here. The Americans agreed that the sub -un would be like a kind of symbolic bridge between the United States and the Moselle. A precious friendship!

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