WW2 “name trees” chopped down by the Frenchies
The names “Thomas and Dorothy” were carved in the bark of one trunk. Another said “Bob and Carma”. Other trees were marked with soldiers’ home states - Iowa, Maine or Alabama - and several bore hearts and the names or initials of a wife or girlfriend.
Claude Quétel, a French historian and Second World War specialist, was horrified when he discovered what he called a catastrophe and a shameless act. “It is a typically French failing to wipe out the traces of the past,” he told The Times. “I am indignant.”
As are we, but whatcha gonna do when cultures self-destruct and wipe out traces of the past? I figure we’ll be over there again fighting Islam someday so we’ll start the tradition all over again…
Posted by rws |
I read a bokk,”Final rounds” byJames Dodson wherein he describes taking his father back to Europe to play some of the great golf courses with him, as he was in the terminal stages of cancer. His father was a G.I. in France during the war. On one day when his father was taking a nap, James went out to find the “Foret du Amor” as the French called it. It was there that the G.I.’s carved their initials and their girl friends’ into the trees. He found it, and he found his father and mother’s initials on one tree. it was very moving, and I thought it was wonderful that the townspeople had preserved this stand of trees in memory of those who liberated their country. It was a nice way to say thanks to the young Americans who gave selflessly for them. How sad that the elites of France have cut down these trees. Maybe next they will dig up the American graves at Normandy and build a mosque on the site. Thanks for putting this information on your blog. Excellent…sad, but excellent.
June 30th, 2008 | #