The inhabitants of the small Norman village of Carentan (Manche) will not forget it. American World War II veteran Tom Rice, who helped liberate the town, died Thursday at the age of 101, his unit said.
“Today we honor a legend of the 101st Airborne, Tom Rice,” the prestigious 101st Airborne Division wrote on Twitter. He died Thursday morning at his home in California, she said.
On the eve of “D-Day” and at only 22 years old, Tom Rice had embarked in England in a Douglas C-47, before being dropped in the middle of the night above the Cotentin with the 9,000 other men of his division. to support the landing. Weighed down by 50 kg of equipment, caught up in the speed of the plane, he had remained attached to the cabin, before managing to detach himself, not without some injuries.
On June 5, 2019, 75 years to the day after his jump intended to secure a lock, he again launched himself, at the age of 97, into the void above Carentan, carried by a parachute in American colors, at the occasion of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Cap of the “101 st Airborne”, sunglasses, the old man with hesitant gait had jumped in tandem before greeting the large crowd with a V for victory. “A beautiful flight, a beautiful jump, everything was perfect! “, he had launched.
VIDEO. D-day: at 97, this American veteran is parachuting again
Since June 1944, the paratrooper who became a history professor in California had made about sixty jumps. “He jumps for all those who sacrificed during the Second World War, as long as he can,” said his wife Brenda Rice during this jump in 2019.
The following year, the Covid pandemic had prevented him from coming but he had waved a Norman flag from California, in honor of the region.
Very attached to the Normans
Despite the language barrier, Tom Rice had remained deeply attached to Normandy and the village of Carentan where he had returned several times in the greatest anonymity. Despite the years, he still feared that the Normans had not forgiven the Americans for the destruction of the war. “We did a lot of damage, people were killed, there were artillery impacts, broken windows…”, he said at the time of his jump in 2019. “The people of Carentan never told us forgiven for the destruction of their city and the death of their family members,” he wrote in his 2004 book “Trial by Combat.”
The inhabitants of the village had shown their gratitude and recognition to him in 2021 on the occasion of his 100th birthday, unveiling a giant portrait of the liberator on the Place de la République, according to France bleu. “It’s a friend who is leaving …”, reacted to our colleagues the Norman historian Denis Van den Brink who had helped him finish his memoirs.
“Tom was a humble man who just wanted to do his duty for his country”, wrote his division this Thursday on Twitter, “he never saw himself as a hero”.