Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore
The Eagles of Mercy
When I visited France in the summer last year I went to the beaches of Normandy, we made an itinerary and there was a little story I read years ago in a little article about two privates,
I had to visit this little church from the 12th century.
What was going to be a small stop to visit this place actually took 6 hours.
Such a small place had a huge impact on me, I even searched for the 2 who died that night, I could only find one.
I borrowed Ken Moore's interview from the internet, my voice wouldn't do justice if I heard it, it's his story not mine.
I honestly don't know why Steven Spielberg didn't make a film of the ordeal that these two privats had.
If you're in the church and know the story that happened there, you really have to admit miracles do exist.
Angoville-au-Plain is a small village when I say small, I mean really small. there is really nothing to see, but here is this beautiful little church, in this picturesque French countryside dating back to the 12th century, home to maybe forty or fifty people, a few houses and a narrow road .
Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore were medics in the 101st Airborne Division. They were dropped behind enemy lines in the early hours of June 6. Instead, they landed on the Normandy beaches they did in Angoville-au-Plain.
The medics Wright and Moore used this small church in the center of the village as an aid station, treating wounded soldiers, most of them from a bad jump, back injuries and broken legs, and a few local girls, Lucienne and her friend Jean-Vienne, who both were wounded by a mortar shell.
the two medics brought the injured back to the church with a wheelbarrow
The battle raged on for three days, with both sides occupying the village at different times. When the US forces were forced to withdraw, Wright and Moore were told to leave, Bob and Ken looked at each other, '' and said, 'We'd better both stay and continue treating the wounded with just the personal medical kits that they gathered from the wounded soldiers.
The medical kits they brought with them were lost during their jump.
They saved 80 people in the church.
German soldiers were forcing to enter the church, but when they saw that Germans laying in the church , being treated as they did to the Americans, they even informed the two medics that they would send a doctor, probably the next morning.
The German made a cross sign and left the medics to treat the injured.
The two medics insisted that those who entered the church should leave their weapons outside.
During the fighting, a mortar shell hit the roof of the church and an American tank shot through the church windows, thinking that there were Germans in the church.
two German soldiers came down from the church tower with their weapons and surrendered. The two medics had no idea they were there all along.
Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore saved 80 lives in their ordeal of three days without any sleep, including one of two local girls, Jean-Vienne. her friend, Lucienne, died of her injuries.
Both served in other battles, including the Battle of the Bulge.
And that is near where i live.
Robert Wright expressed his wish to be buried in the church, but bureaucracy made this impossible. Some of his ashes were smuggled into France to be buried in the cemetery.
The unofficial headstone simply reads 'R.E.W.', Wright's initials.
Kenneth Moore. born in Los Angles
Born: November 5, 1924;
Died: December 7, 2014 (aged 90)
Ken Moore had his ashes spread over his beloved northern California
Robert E Wright. born in Ohio.
Birth 9 Feb 1924
Death 21 Dec 2013 (aged 89)
This was one of these stories that really stood out for me.
Hope you like it.
13 сен 2024
