LEDGER LAND by T.J. Furman
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‘It’s an indelible affair, it’s never forgotten. It may be put aside, but it’s never forgotten. It is hell.’ Victor Rizzo |
Victor Rizzo has been to Périers, France, twice in his life, 56 years apart. The two trips were equally memorable, for vastly different reasons.
Mr. Rizzo, who lives on Fieldboro Drive, returned to Périers last month to commemorate the battle that he helped fight during World War II in 1944, shortly after the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy.
Périers is a small village about 25 miles east-southeast of Omaha Beach. In June of 1944 it was occupied by German forces when the 90th Division of the U.S. Army arrived to liberate the town.
After 13 days of fighting, Périers was freed from its occupation in July. The toll was heavy: The village had been nearly destroyed and 1,141 American soldiers had been killed along with 127 villagers.
"It’s an indelible affair, it’s never forgotten," Mr. Rizzo, a lieutenant at the time of the fight, explained this week. "It may be put aside, but it’s never forgotten. It is hell."
Mr. Rizzo flew an unarmed L4H Cub propeller plane in World War II. His job was to provide protection for the infantry soldiers below him by scouting enemy locations and relaying them to artillery guns which would then open fire.
"I felt this way in all my missions: Once I was in the air … my job was to protect the infantry below," Mr. Rizzo said. "Everything I did was to that aim."
During the battle of Périers, a 14-year-old boy was living in the town and experienced first-hand the 13 days of fighting that tore the village apart. From that time, Henri Levaufre has been collecting artifacts and information from the battle that took place in his town more than half a century ago.
Mr. Levaufre has created a miniature museum in his home to document the battle and in June of each year, he hosts a reunion of the 90th Division in Périers. Soon, the museum will be in its own building with a bronze memorial monument to the dead soldiers and a ring of 127 trees around it honoring the villagers killed in the battle.
The almost completed monument was unveiled last month, and Mr. Rizzo was there to see it. The trip was his first to Périers since July 1944.
The memorial depicts four soldiers during the battle, all of whom were killed fighting against the Nazi occupation forces. It still needs to be bronzed before it is placed in the park with the new museum.
The memorial’s unveiling prompted Mr. Rizzo to travel to Périers with his son, Dennis, who arranged the entire trip.
"The people there are so grateful for our division going through and fighting house to house," Mr. Rizzo said. "Any veteran, especially from the 90th Division, that comes into town is immediately put up in someone’s home and they feed us at no charge."
At the time of the war, Périers had a population of 2,200. Today it is not much larger, though it is completely rebuilt. The population now stands at 2,900.
A unique aspect of the Périers reunion is the presence of not just one side of the battle’s combatants, but both. German soldiers who fought against the American forces are also invited annually to Périers, Mr. Rizzo said.
"They were a little stiff," Mr. Rizzo said. "But I guess it’s tough to shake hands with someone that was trying to kill you."
The gratitude shown by the town is extraordinary to Mr. Rizzo because of the way the town was left by the soldiers. As he explained, it wasn’t just the German soldiers that destroyed Périers, the Americans had just as much to do with it.
"You can’t believe the true gratitude, the true respect they showed the veterans," Mr. Rizzo said. "Never in this country have I seen that. It wasn’t just me it was the rest of us."
But Périers was just the beginning of the war for Mr. Rizzo. The 90th Division fought from Omaha Beach all the way to Czechoslovakia when the war in Europe ended in May 1945.
Périers sticks in his mind though because it was the first combat action he saw. Visiting the town again reminded him of those 13 days in June 1944.
"It brought a lot of indelible memories back, really severe. It was a tough area to fight."
T.J. Furman is the managing editor of The Lawrence Ledger.