Liberated French celebrate holiday
Ceremonies solemn in Normandy area
Cherbourg, France (UP) –
With American guns firing a salute and the U.S. flag draped over the city’s war memorial, Cherbourg led the liberated portion of France today in the first free celebration of Bastille Day in five years.
A battery of twelve 105mm guns, similar to those which helped drive the Germans from the peninsula, roared out over the city at 8:00 a.m. (2:00 a.m. ET) to open the day’s ceremonies.
On Cherbourg’s memorial to the men she lost in World War I, a flag, sent by John L. Donovan of Brooklyn to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower with the request it be flown in Cherbourg to mark the U.S. Fourth of July, was hung.
High mass held
At midday, solemn high mass was held at Notre-Dame du Vœu, attended by ranking Allied officers and local leaders.
The day’s ceremonies were marked by a parade of Allied forces, including 72 French sailors from ships which aided in the beachhead landings. The parade wound along the waterfront to the public gardens where the memorial stands under a peak, atop which rests Fort de Roule, one of the bastions taken by U.S. troops less than three weeks ago.
Underground parades
Proudly marching in the parade and no longer fearful of showing themselves, was a group of French Resistance workers who fought the Nazis through the long years of occupation.
Lt. Col. Frank Howley of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, civil affairs officer, and the mayor of Cherbourg made brief speeches before the memorial.
In front of the municipal theater, official ceremonies were held to change the name of Place Marechal Pétain to Place General de Gaulle.
In the rest of liberated Normandy, smaller celebrations were held.