Margareth Hughes Godmother of a small French village

This is a story of a local village in the Loire village called Herbilly. In June 1940 collums of refugees drove by, the inhabitants did what they could to help those who needed to eat and a place to sleep. One day a delegation from the American Embassy came by as they were leaving Paris which was about to be occupied. The lady of Embassy personnal,Mrs Margareth Hughes, was deeply moved by the hospitality of the villagers, but she had to leave the area which was getting close to the front line.

Then on June 1944 Lancaster ND 741 from 44 Squadron crashed right on the village , killing the crew, seven villagers and destroying 33 building + damaging 33 other ones, including the church, which tower resisted. The crew is remembered every year , as well as the civilian victims. A monument was dedicated to them.

After the war , Mrs Mrs Margareth Hughes heard about the fate of the villagers who had lost everything and remebered their generousity.
Her husband John Chambers Hugues was now working for Nato, so she had the opportunity to help the villagers. She organised donations which included furniture, clothes, plates and helped restoring the church.

A plaque was dedicated to her by the grateful villagers in 1955

Today, Mrs Mrs Margareth Hughes is still Herbilly's Godmother.


Here is a link ( written in broken English by the villagers, but very sincere)

Herbilly - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

 

Very touching...

 

Well I thought it would be nice to mention a few real stories, although not significative, but still touching , but that nevertheless reflected the daily sufferings of the population of occupied countries. I was getting a bit fed up with the fashionable fiction stories of fame looking revisionists about how "nice" the German occupation was. I could probably post on for months with stories, as almost every village has it's own stories (with evidence and sources of course, not legends or fiction). Next time I will post a story about Germans shooting British pows against a wall (including a Major) along with French civilians. This happened in 1944 next to my hometown.

 

Great story. I still can't imagine what it would be like knowing an occupation force would be enroute to my town. The fear of knowing or worse yet, not knowing, what will happen would be overwhelming.