This is the new monument dedicated to the men of ‘The Mighty Eighth’ in Normandy.

The set of four life-size bronze statues of medal-awarded USAAF Airmen was unveiled at the La Fière Memorial Park near Sainte-Mère-Eglise on 5th June.

The four airmen (L-R) are Staff Sgt. Maynard “Snuffy” Smith – Gunner, 300th Bomb Group (Medal of Honor); Lt Col Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal – Pilot, 100th Bomb Group (Distinguished Service Cross & two Silver Stars); Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle – Commander 8th Air Force (Medal of Honor); Col. Donald “Don” Blakselee – Commander 4th Fighter Group (Distinguished Service Cross).

Many will be familiar with Gen. Doolittle (now there’s a name ill-suited to its owner!) and Lt, Col. Rosenthal who was immortalised recently in the Hanks/Spielberg ‘Masters of the Air’ TV miniseries, but maybe not Staff Sgt Smith or Col. Blakselee.

On his first mission as a ball-turret gunner Snuffy Smith helped save the lives of six of his wounded comrades, put out a blazing fire after his aircraft was hit, and drove off wave after wave of German fighters.

Described as the most decorated WW2 USAAF fighter pilot, Don Blakselee flew more combat missions against the Luftwaffe than any other American fighter pilot (500+ operational sorties/1,000+ combat hours) and by the end of the war was a flying ace credited with 15.5 aerial victories.

The initiative to create an Eighth Air Force memorial started, as others have*, during a visit to Normandy by the ‘Masters of the Air’ author, Donald Miller, who noted that while there were monuments to individual aircrews, there was no overall monument to the airmen of the ‘Mighty Eighth’ who flew more than 2,300 sorties on D-Day and suffered more than 47,000 casualties.

Now there is, thanks to The American Legion and The Normandy Institute, a U.S. nonprofit organisation, who commissioned sculptor Benjamin Victor for the statues.

You might wonder “why La Fière?”

I did (and so did historians Al Murray & James Holland, who visited just before I did in July). The site is all about the US 82nd Airborne who fought and died here. It has nothing to do with the USAAF.

But, when you think about it, where would you put such a monument? Certainly nowhere near their biggest battlefield sites like St Lô. That would be a little uncomfortable given the level of destruction they wrought.

And the La Fière memorial park has benefits: It’s a US site. It’s fairly well-known and lies just outside Sainte-Mère-Eglise, so it draws many American visitors. And its future is secure. The memorial park is protected from sale or alternative use by a three-way agreement between The American Legion, Amis des Veterans Americains and the City of Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

* Eg. British Normandy Memorial and Juno Centre, both initiated when somebody, visiting Normandy, said “Wait a minute. Why isn’t there a memorial to … ?”