THE heads of the French and British airforce attended a moving service at York Minster to commemorate the sacrifice of French Airmen based in the city during the Second World War.
Air force chief General Jean Paul Palomeros and RAF head Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton were among 1,600 dignitaries, veterans and guests to attend the inauguration of a memorial at York Minster in honour of thousands of French airmen who were based in Elvington.
Later, crowds gathered outside the Minster to watch an Anglo/French flypast of planes including a Battle of Britain Lancaster Bomber.
Speaking at the service, Reverend Group Captain Nick Berry said: “This memorial is a testimony to their iron resolve, to their bravery, to their love of their homeland and to their willingness to take a stand against the darkness that threatened to engulf their home land.”
It is the first French war memorial to be housed in an English cathedral, officials said.
The 346 Guyenne and 347 Tunisie French Air Force squadrons of Royal Air Force Bomber Command were the only French Air Force heavy bomber squadrons of the allied air forces during the war - based at RAF Elvington near York.
More than 2,000 French airmen were based at Elvington during 1944 and 1945. Amongst their first missions was the bombing of their own country in preparation for the Normandy invasion.
Half of all French aircrew perished during bombing operations, particularly in the Ruhr and Berlin.
To mark the 66th anniversary of the French heavy bomber squadrons leaving Elvington to return to liberated France, nine Elvington veterans, now in their eighties and nineties, and their families have returned to York to represent their comrades.
Pauline Bogaert, whose late husband Jean served in Elvington, said about the service: “It was most touching. I can’t find words to express what I feel.
“The English and French were together as we were 66 years ago. Unfortunately my husband is not here but we feel that he is still with us today.”
The debt we owe to these heroes
YORK Minster has witnessed many great occasions.
But yesterday’s dedication of a memorial to the French airmen who flew from Elvington during the war was right up there.
It wasn’t just the solemnity of the occasion that made it so special; nor the spectacular flypast, the watching crowds, or even the hundreds of invited dignitaries and guests, among them the heads of the French and British air forces.
What made it so moving was the nine men, elderly and frail now but still unbowed, who were at the centre of proceedings. More than 60 years ago, they were among the hundreds of young French airmen based at Elvington who, day in, day out, put their lives on the line for freedom. Not many of them are left now. It was marvellous to see them here.
The words of Group Captain Nick Berry summed it up. “This memorial is a testimony to their iron resolve, to their bravery, to their love of their homeland and to their willingness to take a stand against the darkness,” he said.
There can hardly have been a dry eye in the Minster.
The nine elderly French veterans have been welcomed like the returning heroes they are this week. They have been wonderful ambassadors for their country – and the living embodiment of the link forged between York and France during the darkest years of the war.
It is absolutely right the city should have honoured them and all their colleagues – living and dead – in the way it has. They played their part in a unique chapter in our history. We owe a debt of gratitude to them all.
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