L'Alsace Newspaper (www.alsapresse.com) 6 May 2006

TITLE: Canadian aviator returns to the scene of his crash
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SUBTITLE: This year's commemoration of 8 May 1945, in Willer-sur-Thur, will take place in the presence of a gunner whose aircraft crashed in December 1944 on Freundstein. He is the only survivor.

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Tomorrow, Sunday, 7 May, a ceremony imprinted with memories and emotions will take place on Freundstein in the presence of Lorne Albert Mallory, a Canadian military veteran now aged 81 years and living north of Toronto.

In fact, as a gunner on board a "Halifax" of the Royal Canadian Air Force, he was the sole survivor of the crash of this aircraft on the 2nd December, 1944, just above the farm of Freundstein.

He has not returned to the region since this tragic event. The crash of his aircraft, perhaps caused by enemy fire -- no one knows for certain -- led to the deaths of his six crew mates.

It was practically a miracle that Lorne Mallory had his life saved: the only portion of the aircraft that did not disintegrate during the crash was the one where he found himself at his post as mid-upper gunner. He succeeded in extricating himself from the burning debris of the cabin, and then rescuers, taking a huge risk, evacuated him, severely burned, towards Willer-sur-Thur.

The gunner returns to his rescuers

There, gunner Mallory was hidden and his wounds tended by a nursing sister in a cellar of the Dibling house, in rue Joffre, then later in rue Gallieni, in a domicile occupied by a family Lutringer. Without doubt, he also owes his survival to the small interest shown by the occupant, who was instead preoccupied with the advance of the liberators who entered the village one week later.

Several of those who helped save Lorne Mallory returned recently to the city hall of Willer, on the initiative of Jean-Marie Deharvengt and Philippe Seither, president and second vice-president, respectively, of the Association of Friends of the History of Aviation in Alsace (AAHAA); the organisation performed remarkable services in order to trace down the wounded gunner, collect and catalogue debris from the aircraft, collect eye-witness accounts of the crash, etc.

In the photo included with this article, one can see several of the people gathered together by the AAHAA being welcomed by the mayor Alain Delestan: from L. to R. René Lutringer, who lived in the house in rue Gallieni, the second refuge for the gunner, Gustave Laborie, who participated in the rescue, Roger Ringenbach, then employed at the farm on Freundstein and the one who, being most near to the crash, had dug temporary graves for the dead crew members (these men now lie at the Canadian cemetery in Toul), then Lorne Mallory, his wife Constance, and Colette Gasser, who lived in the house in rue Joffre, first hiding place of the gunner.

--Albert Mura

In the photo included with this article, one can see several of the people gathered together by the AAHAA being welcomed by the mayor Alain Delestan: from L. to R. René Lutringer, who lived in the house in rue Gallieni, the second refuge for the gunner,

Gustave Laborie, who participated in the rescue,

Roger Ringenbach, then employed at the farm on Freundstein and the one who, being most near to the crash, had dug temporary graves for the dead crew members (these men now lie at the Canadian cemetery in Toul), then

Lorne Mallory, his wife Constance, and

Colette Gasser, who lived in the house in rue Joffre, first hiding place of the gunner.