Committee member Jan Jauncey gave a moving talk about the several visits she has made to Montcony over the past twenty years, which have been instrumental in building friendships between a small Yorkshire village with the even smaller village of Montcony in light of its amazing story.
In her talk, she particularly described a moving event in remembrance of the crew of an RAF bomber that had left RAF Linton on Ouse in October 1942, but had crashed in the small village of Montcony in Burgundy. The local school master, Henri Vincent, defied Nazi and Vichy police orders and arranged a funeral for the 8 airmen in the local church yard. The strength of local feeling was such that nearly 3,000 people walked across fields to be there, avoiding road blocks. This led to more acts of defiance and local resistance groups were formed. Jean Moulin helped to organise them, and many other groups, into a real fighting force which helped to end the War.
A memorial was raised in Montcony in 1945 and the small village has hosted a large remembrance parade each year since. Linton on Ouse villagers hosted visitors from Montcony several times, before the RAF base closed in 2020. On one visit they brought part of the plane “back home” to Linton.
Some pictures from her visit are available on the Photo Galleries page here.