Ronald A WILSON

Landéan near Fougères, ILLE-ET-VILAINE

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

M5A1 Stuart Light

Died on 02/08/1944 in the forest of Fougères

Burned in his M5A1 Stuart tank, shot down by a German 88-gun sniper near the Chennedet crossroads.

He is still missing to date because the body could not be found.

He is the only American soldier who died for the liberation of Fougeres.

Soldiers from the 79th Infantry Division examine an 88mm gun abandoned by the Germans at the gates of Fougeres in early August.

Seventy-three years ago, Ferns under the bombs

Above, from left to right: the rue de la Pinterie, devastated after the explosion of a time bomb in a wooden house.

The fire spreads to the whole street (photo credit: Goachet).

The locomotive, destroyed, in Fougères station, which is at the time a strategic rail node (photo credit: Goachet).

Bottom: one of the American Jeeps amazes the population (municipal archives).

The good reception for GI's ... (municipal archives).

The Americans, Landéan alumni, the mayor, Marc Betton, historian, went to the forest where Private Wilson was killed.

Americans, including members of the Defense Department, were following in the footsteps of a soldier in 2013 in Landéan.

Private Wilson was killed in the forest of Fougeres in 1944.