On June 25, 1944, 20 days after the D-Day landings, 200 American B 17 bombers took off from England to pound the German positions around Blagnac. One of the last aircraft in the wave was shot down by the DCA and crashed at Cornebarrieu. A member of the crew, unable to escape, died in the crash. The other 8 parachuted and were captured by the Germans in Blagnac, incarcerated and then deported. But they survived. Annie Thomas, president of Blagnac, History and Memory, recounts the rest: “For a very long time, we did not know where they had been detained in Blagnac. In 2001, two survivors returned and we were asked to try to find the place of their detention. We brought them here, which was then the headquarters of the Luftwaffe, and they recognized the cellars!”
On Tuesday, June 25, 2024, a ceremony was held at Ferradou to mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, bringing together many officials in the school. First phase on the steps of the castle and in front of the immense fresco of a B17 surrounded by a cloud of origami butterflies made by the children. All the students of the school present that day, more than 400 students, attended and discovered for some the history of their castle. Guillaume Lapeyre, teacher in CE 2, testifies: “It was not on the program, but we tried to convey to them the importance of the moment, of the testimony, of the trace. In their imagination, a prison in a castle corresponds more to the Middle Ages because they are small. But there are common cultural references that allow them to visualize what it can represent, and so it was interesting to know that the school is a place full of history.”
After the speeches, the Ferradou choir sang the French and American anthems, then the students were released and a military ceremony with wreath laying continued on the side of the castle, near the door of the aviators’ jail where a plaque had been affixed. The morning ended with the presentation of a French flag, belonging to the Souvenir Français, to the Ferradou establishment for a period of 3 years, confirmed by the signing of an agreement.
