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French honor American’s sacrifice
After having completed a successful air mission earlier on Aug. 28, 1944, Flight Officer Russel Keith Jennings thought he might have time for other work but the call came into the air base at Frejus-Saint-Raphaël for a second mission; Jennings would not return from that one.
The story of what happened that day in 1944 and the wonderful way in which his memory is kept alive in southern France was shared on Tuesday by his niece, Susan Knight, now of Nevada.
In peacetime, being assigned to a base located between Cannes and St. Tropez on the Côte d’Azur – the French Riviera – would have been a dream assignment.
However, on Aug. 15, 1944, there was a second invasion of France, only this time it was along the Mediterranean coast. Called Operation Dragoon, it was designed to prevent the Germans from concentrating their forces against a single front and provide a large port through which troops and supplies could be brought in to support all operations in France.
Half of the invasion forces were French units with much of the operational success due to the work of the French Resistance, who called themselves the Maquis, a word referring to the thickets of trees and bushes throughout the area.
Jennings was part of a unit flying P-47 Thunderbolt planes. Most missions were dive-bombing runs and strafing of the enemy in support of allied ground forces.
The call for a second mission that late August day included Captain William Colgan, Lieutenant Phil Bagian and Jennings; they were part of an effort which strafed and seriously damaged the German Nineteenth army retreating northward.
All three encountered heavy fire with one being shot down – the Maquis got him out – a second had his plane hit but made it back to base while Jennings was either hit or developed mechanical trouble. As he descended, his plane clipped a tree top and his plane flipped over, hitting the ground.
Although Jennings was alive the area was under German control; rescue was not possible. He was interred by monks from a nearby monastery with his remains later removed to an American military cemetery. In 1948, Jennings’ remains were brought back to his hometown of St. Charles, Illinois for final burial.
In November 2007, Knight was contacted by a second cousin about an inquiry regarding Jennings.
“I guess you could say I’m the family historian, which is why I was contacted,” said Knight.
The person seeking information was Philippe Biolley, co-president of the Drôme Provençale committee of France’s National Association of Veterans and Friends of the Resistance (ANACR in French).
“He was the one who excavated Keith’s crash-site,” explained Knight. “He was trying to get in touch with his family and that’s where I got involved.”
Knight and her uncle Keith Jennings were born in St. Charles, Illinois, a town located 40 miles west of Chicago.
During the interview, on the wall over Knight’s right shoulder was an enlarged photo of her mother Priscilla, as a young child, along with her mother’s older brother Keith; Knight was born 12 years after Keith’s death.
“His parents, who were my grandparents, were very close to Keith,” said Knight. “They wrote letters to each other almost every day.”
She pulled out a large plastic tub full of the hundreds of letters her grandparents had received.
“I am told when my grandpa learned of Keith’s death his hair went white overnight,” said Knight. “My grandparents never spoke about him and my mother didn’t really know much which means all of us – my mom had 12 kids – didn’t know much either.”
But then came that search by Biolley and all that changed.
At its national meeting in October 2006, ANACR voted to expand its efforts to include recognition of those who gave their lives as well as the living who fight fascism and racism in support of freedom and democratic values.
This led Biolley and his co-president, Béatrice Jouve and Brian John Millar, president of the Rhone (river valley) Association for Air Remembrance (ARSA in French) to erect a five-foot high stele (upright stone slab) monument with an explanatory plaque and photo of Jennings at the crash site.
Knight and sister Kathleen Gilmartin along with Kathleen’s husband Tom, a commander in the United States Navy, were on hand for the dedication in May 2008.
“The site is absolutely beautiful,” related Knight. “It’s sheltered by a line of trees which were bushes or small trees [maquis] in 1944.”
Also on hand was the landowner, Jean-Luc Pradier.
“Part of Jean-Luc’s land is a vineyard – oh his red wine is wonderful – and part of it is a lavender field,” said Knight. “So talk about beautiful; in every way we were simply overwhelmed.”
An extensive ceremony was held with speeches by representatives of the two veterans organizations, the Mayor of the nearby town of Montbrison sur Lez (the Lez is a nearby river), a representative from the American Consulate and a French honor guard.
Last month, on the tenth anniversary of that first ceremony, another was held at the same location. Joining the Gilmartins and Knight were her brother Mike Driessen and his wife Angela.
Mike’s middle name is Keith; he was named after his uncle.
“Mike was completely floored by it all,” said Knight. “There were close to 100 people there, including a noted poet.”
“As we did ten years ago, the stele was covered with an American flag which my brother-in-law and I removed and folded,” said Knight. “Then he said a few words about Keith and his sacrifice and then presented the flag to Mike, Kathleen and myself; we all cried.”
In 2009, Biolley and his wife Hélène came to St. Charles, Illinois in order to decorate Keith’s grave, meet family and see the area he came from; they are scheduled for a return trip in 2019.
Biolley personally dug up the crash site and presented Knight with fragments of glass and metal from Jennings’ plane along with buttons from his uniform. Biolley also worked with Pradier to set aside land and erect a monument.
Knight added, “He also organizes field trips by area school children to the site where they learn about Keith, the Allies, the Maquis and how we have to be vigilant in opposing fascism and racism in our time.”
Said Knight, “Thanks to Philippe, Jean-Luc, ANACR, ARSA and others I not only know my uncle but thanks to the French, his sacrifice for liberty will be known for generations.”
Following the death of her husband, Knight – who has two children – moved to Nevada to be close to her daughter and two grandchildren.
She had informed Biolley about this interview and in his email he said, “We love Americans.”