Luftwaffe Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters awaiting disposal at Flensburg airfield in Germany, 2 August 1945.
On July 4, 1944, 2nd Lt Lonnie L. Moseley (St. George, Utah) was flying over Rouen, France, when his P-47 Thunderbolt got hit by German anti-aircraft fire. The engine failed, so Lonnie bailed out, and landed deep inside enemy-occupied territory. The Germans were everywhere, searching for the pilot they had just shot down. That's when a Frenchman appeared from nowhere and told Lonnie to follow him. This mysterious man was Lucien Lestang, an active member of the French Resistance. Lucien, his wife Nellie, and their 20-year-old son Bernard, welcomed Lonnie into their home, and decided to risk their own lives to protect this American pilot. Shortly after, Lucien's network created fake identification papers for him. Lonnie was now Louis René Meslin, a deaf and mute French farmhand. More than two months after his arrival, Lonnie learnt that British soldiers were in a neighbouring village, but to get there, the American pilot would have to walk right through the German lines. So Lonnie said goodbye to everyone, and took his chance. He recalled "I just acted like I was going to town and walked right through the middle of them. I kept waiting for a burst of gunfire to rip through my back, but it never came". Lonnie then approached a British patrol and was finally on Allied territory. The special relationship between the Lestang family and this American hero never ended. As Lucien always said: "Lonnie is my son from America". Lucien passed away in 1964 and Lonnie died in 2014.
WWII Vet Paul Newman was born in a suburb of Cleveland in 1925. After Newman graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he joined the Navy's V-12 program at Yale University in the hopes of becoming a pilot. His hopes were dashed, however, when it was discovered that he was color blind.
Instead of completing the program, Newman was shipped to basic training where he qualified to be a rear-seat radioman and gunner for torpedo bombers. In 1944, Newman was sent to Barber's Point where he operated in torpedo bomber squadrons designed to train replacement pilots. He was later stationed on an aircraft carrier as a turret gunner for an Avenger aircraft.
One of Newman's later posts was aboard the USS Bunker Hill which fought in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. In a stroke of fate, his pilot developed an ear infection and they were held back from flying in the Okinawa campaign. Because of this, he and his pilot avoided the destruction of their ship, and the deaths of the sailors aboard. Newman was discharged in 1946 in Washington. His military honors included the American Area Campaign medal, the Good Conduct medal, and the World War II Victory medal.
