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Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and on behalf of everyone here at CCRcorp, I’d like to express our sincere thanks to all who served our nation. Here’s a blog I posted on the 75th anniversary of D-Day over on the John Tales Blog on DealLawyers.com that I thought might be appropriate for today:

Forgive me this departure from the law-related stuff, but since this week is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I wanted to share a remarkable story that I heard when my wife and I visited Normandy a few years ago.

We spent a couple of weeks in France in 2016, and saw so many beautiful sites that I honestly can’t remember them all. But I’ll never forget this nondescript little church on the outskirts of a postage-stamp sized town in Normandy called Angoville au Plain, a few miles inland from Utah Beach. It’s a place that most D-Day tours don’t visit, but we had a very small group that day, and our guide decided to take a little detour to visit “her favorite site.”

From June 6 to June 8, 1944, Angoville au Plain was fought over constantly and changed hands several times. When the Americans first took it on D-Day, they set up an aid station inside this church. The pews remain blood stained to this day.

When the Germans counter-attacked, it became apparent that the Americans were going to have to retreat. Many of the wounded couldn’t be moved, and the two medics running the aid station – Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore – refused to pull out and leave them behind. Their commander agreed to let them stay.

The Germans arrived shortly after the Americans pulled out. When they did, they saw the medics tending to the wounded and carrying them into the church. The German commander asked if they would treat the German wounded too. They said that they would, and he let them carry on with their work.

Soon, wounded German soldiers found their way to the church. The only condition Wright and Moore imposed was that they leave their weapons outside. At one point, German soldiers on patrol stumbled into the church. They pointed their weapons at Wright and Moore, but when they saw they were treating both U.S. and German soldiers, they backed out, and had a red cross flag placed next to the door.

During the first night, a battle raged in the church yard. Although the church was once hit by a stray shell, throughout the fight, the Germans and the Americans respected the neutrality of this site, and these two medics treated 80 wounded American and German soldiers, along with a French child. Only two of the people they treated died.

The 101st Airborne finally took the town for good on June 8th. Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright were both awarded the Silver Star for gallantry. Moore was 20 years old. Wright was 19.

Enjoy the holiday.  Our blogs will be back on Thursday.

– John Jenkins