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Pontoise editorial team
Published on
Oct. 7 2024 at 10:41 am
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At the end of the summer of 1944, the village of Bernes-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise) was 95% destroyed. 80 years later, the town celebrated the anniversary of the Release.
Saturday October 5 and Sunday October 6, 2024, numerous activities were organized for this commemoration weekend celebrating the arrival of the 386th US Air Force Bombing Group at Bernes airfield.
The US Air Force settles in Bernes
The festivities began with a concert of jazz and music from the 40s at the church.
During these two days, a military encampment with vintage vehicles attracted many visitors to the town center. Saturday afternoon, a play recounted the arrival of the Americans in Bernes.
A scene representing an injured person being treated in a German hospital interested visitors, some of whom were under 14 at the time.
In the gymnasium there was a beautiful exhibition with documents from the period as well as the uniform of Captain Earl J. Slanker; the first American aviator to land in Bernes.
“It’s a very interesting exhibition which corresponds to the program on the Second World War that we study at college,” confirms Chloé.
Sunday October 6, at 11 a.m., the 80th ceremonye anniversary of the arrival of the US Air Force aviators took place at the Bernes memorial, near the cemetery, in the presence of officials, elected officials, presidents of associations, families of veterans as well as the public.
Military vehicles
On the program: parade of military vehicles, raising of colors, laying of wreaths, release of doves, as well as the flyover of the ceremony by two planes and the landing of a paratrooper with the American and French flags.
Commemorative medals were presented to guests in the presence of Jeanine Boissy-Le Forestier, president of the Bernes Memorial association.
Alain DUPEYRAT
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