There once was a young cowboy in Arizona called Lincoln Delmar Bundy. He learned to fly and when the war in Europe engulfed the world in 1941 he joined the US Army Air Force and flew P-51 Mustangs. He was shot down on 9th July 1944 over the forests to the south of Poitiers.
Fortunately for Lincoln, he baled out and was found by a local resistance member who took him to a British and French SAS unit operating in the Bois des Carte- their mission to delay the Panzer forces billeted in southern France from reaching the Normandy landings bridgehead. Lincoln joined the SAS that day.
Unfortunately for Lincoln Bundy, the SAS unit had been betrayed to the local German Sicherheitsdienst by informers. Next morning, he and the unit he had joined were caught in an ambush. Only eight of the 56 members of the unit escaped, the rest, including Lincoln Bundy were captured. Three SAS men were wounded and taken to hospital.
The decision of what to do with the captives was taken by Hitler’s infamous Commando Order, that decreed all captured commandoes were to be summarily executed. An argument followed between the SS and the regular army about who should carry out the executions. The army lost.
The captives were forced to dig their own graves in the forest at Saint Sauvant and were then shot by firing squad- Lincoln Bundy died that day, having fought to give an enslaved people its freedom and giving his life, with others, so that the world should be free of a terrible tyranny.
He now lies at rest with his SAS comrades, buried in the village cemetery at Rom, in the department of Deux-Sevres. The village is only sixty miles from my present home. I shall visit 2nd Lt Bundy on 11th July, the anniversary of his murder, to pay him and the others, my respects and gratitude for their sacrifice.
Lest We Forget!
If there are any Arizonans, or others, who would like me to pass a message - pm me before I go and I’ll pass it on.
