About 3 meters to the south of the tower.

An upright, dark stele, inscribed with a commemoration message and the list of names of the crew. The inscription is written in French in gold and engraved lettering. On the top of the plaque is a depiction of a B-17, while on the bottom is the insignia of the US Army Air Force.

On June 24, 1944, at 6:30 a.m., a group of U.S. Air Force planes took off from Ridgewell Air Force Base in England, with the mission of destroying a railroad bridge over the Loire River at La Riche. Nine men were on board the B17, "The Betty L".

At 8:30 a.m., as the plane approached the objective, it was hit by a German flak shell stationed at Ballan-Miré.

The radio operator, the belly gunner, and the rear gunner were killed instantly by the explosion. The bomber, Lieutenant Ray Stewart, managed to drop his bombs. The six survivors parachuted from an altitude of 7,000 meters before their plane exploded in the sky and crashed in a field to the west, in Vallères.

One of them, Lieutenant Richard L. Kellum, was unlucky: debris from the plane ripped off his parachute, and he fell to a place called "La Géneterie". His body was not found until three days later by farmers who had come to make hay.

Four soldiers opened their parachutes too early and were spotted by the Germans who took them as prisoners as soon as they touched the ground. Lieutenant Ray Stewart landed in the woods. Wounded in the knee, he was rescued by Frenchmen who hid him in the forest. The local squire, Mr. Delancourt, came to get him the next day and hid him in his home.

Later, the American fugitive was entrusted to Mrs. Bourne, owner of the Hotel de Grande-Bretagne, in Pont-de-Ruan, a member of the FFI... Later, Lieutenant Stewart took part in parachute receptions and the sabotage of telephone lines. The bomber Stewart found the American army of General Patton at the end of August, in Tours. He kept in touch with his friends and saviors in Tours for fifty years. His comrades were liberated in 1945.

Four airmen were buried on the spot, Lieutenant Richard L. Kellum was first buried in Vallères and the three airmen killed in the plane were buried by the Germans in nearby cemeteries.

After the end of the war, the bodies of Sergeant Harry Owens and Lieutenant Richard Kellum were repatriated to their homes in the United States in Missouri and Ohio. The bodies of Staff Sergeant Paul G. Cossandier and Sergeant Grover Scoggins lie in Colleville-Sur-Mer American Cemetery in Normandy.

Source of information: www.aerosteles.net, francecrashes39-45.net

Source of photos: www.aerosteles.net