On August 8, 1944, the 3rd battalion of the 8th US Infantry Division, under the command of Colonel Eyler, were encircled at the entrance of the town of Pleurtuit, following a German counterattack. On August 9, he lacks plasma for his wounded, so it was decided to send him by parachute, through two Piper L4 (coded 38) of the observation group of the 56th Field Artillery Battalion. Nineteen thirty, start of the artillery barrage, companies F and G of the second battalion are preparing, the G on the right, the F on the left.
The Piper arrive above the encirclement zone ten minutes ahead of schedule, dropping medical containers a few meters off the ground. But once the effect of surprise passed, the Germans pull themselves together. The two planes trying to join the American lines and zigzagging to avoid the German fire collide and fall at the place called "Les Fourneaux" a few tens of meters from the new roundabout of the old railway crossing. The Germans open a dense fire on the carcasses preventing the approach of any help to pilots and observers.
The 1st lieutenants Gibb Charles, and Schmidt Earl, Fanders Gordon and Roberts Rufus of the 56th Artillery Battalion are killed in this action. (The four men will be buried on August 14 at 12:30 pm at Saint James Cemetery).
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