The yellowed picture shows a young man standing in the cockpit of a plane, leaning on the windshield. On his face is a focused, confident look, the hallmark of a military aviator. Written on the side is “Pilot – S.B. Dale.”
Forever young in that photo, Sam Bond Dale Jr. never got the chance to grow old with a family of his own because, like thousands of his generation, the Columbia resident gave the ultimate sacrifice on foreign soil in World War II.
Thankfully, it has not been forgotten. The war hero will be honored on Veterans Day by the French village where he crashed after being shot down by Germans in 1944.
Relatives of Dale from Mississippi and Louisiana will be on hand in Le Mesnil-Fuguet, France, as guests of the town council.
A French amateur historian named Loïc Lemarchand submitted the idea to commemorate Bond to the mayor after discovering new details that solved the mystery of exactly what happened in the fateful crash.
Lemarchand, who spoke with the C-P in an email interview, said they decided to do it on the 100th anniversary of the World War 1 armistice as well as the month of Dale’s 100th birthday.
“French people there from Le Mesnil-Fuguet are very enthusiastic about this ceremony to commemorate the sacrifice of Sam Dale, and nobody was aware about his death in their village,” the 35-year-old policeman said. “Generally, French people are very sensitive about Allied soldiers who lost their life for our freedom during World War II. We recognize all the sacrifices.”
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Dale was born in Hattiesburg on Nov. 26, 1918, and the family moved to Columbia in 1927, according to information provided by his niece, Barbara Rochinski Broome. His parents were Sam and Allie May Jones Dale. He had a brother, Lawrence Dale from Covington, La., and two sisters, Katherine Dale McCown of Columbia and Helen Dale Rochinski from Columbia and Forest.
Like thousands of young Mississippians, he enlisted after the U.S. entrance into World War II, joining the Army Air Corps and being accepted into flight training. Bond was commissioned a second lieutenant and was sent to a base in England, his niece said.
He was assigned to the 63rd squadron of Zeke Zemke's famous Wolfpack, the 56th Fighter Group. He flew a P-47 Thunderbolt and had many successful missions damaging locomotives, bridges and other structures. He also destroyed an FW 190 and a ME 109 German fighter.
On July 4, 1944, the 25-year-old was on a mission over France when he was “jumped” by German fighters and was shot down and killed over Conches Airdrome near the small village of Le Mesnil-Fuguet, which is in northern France about 60 miles northwest of Paris and has a population today of about 200.
The Columbian-Progress reported at the time that “Lt. Dale was last seen with four German planes on his tail, flying low and very fast in an attempt to get away. He was out of ammunition but had plenty of gas. At the time he was leading his squadron and was returning from a strafing mission.”
Some farmers cutting hay nearby saw the crash and retrieved his body after it was released by the Germans, Broome said. After requesting an oak coffin from the town council, the villagers buried him in the Saint Aubin Church cemetery after a mass. After the war, his body was moved to the Normandy American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer.
Dale was awarded the air medal with three oak clusters for meritorious achievement while participating in missions over enemy-occupied Europe. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart. His name appears on the Marion County War Memorial outside the courthouse.
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Lemarchand said he grew up in the Normandy region and has always been fascinated by World War II, especially in his home region. There were many aerial battles in that area, and he said he’s been able to identify about 1,000 aircraft losses in his department (a French unit of local government somewhat like a county but a little larger).
He began to meet surviving members of the French resistance who had helped Allied airmen after they were shot down and published a book in 2008 about one French survivor who aided the 10-member crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress crash.
Lemarchand was aware of Sam Dale but didn’t have much information about him until the publication of a book last year in Le Mesnil-Fuguet by a man named Henri Cachelou. Lemarchand met with him about another plane crash in the area and learned about an account from an eyewitness to Dale’s crash named Jean Bernay. Lemarchand began trying to find out more about Dale and got into contact with his niece, Barbara Broome, through a French internet forum. He said the case had also been an enigma both to him and Dale’s family. In the missing air crew report, Dale’s flight comrade said Dale had flown over Conches Airfield and crossed the German flak (anti-aerial defense) and not much more.
But Lemarchand said after finding a rare German document related to the recovery of Dale’s body along with the eyewitness account, he considers it solved.
He said Dale had dropped his bombs and was then involved in a dogfight with a Luftwaffe (the German term for its air force) fighter. Three German planes shot him down, but Dale managed to bail out of his P-47 at a low altitude (about 2,500 feet).
However, Lemarchand believes Dale struck the rudder when he evacuated, as evidenced by a serious wound on the back of his head, and was not able to open his parachute. His body was recovered with the unopened parachute in a field in Le Mesnil-Fuguet.
His aircraft crashed in a nearby village in Tourneville, 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the place of Dale's body discovery, Lemarchand said.
Broome said the historian was able to pinpoint the crash site in a wheat field and has excavated many relics from the plane.
And now as a result of those efforts Dale’s sacrifice will be honored by the village.
Mayor Michel Dulondel and the town council are organizing a ceremony and exposition on Nov. 11 at which they will honor Dale’s memory with a commemorative plaque placed at the Town Hall.
Two of his nieces — Broome, who is from Baton Rouge, La., and Margaret Rochinski Chance of Forest, along with her husband, Tony — have accepted the invitation and are planning to attend the ceremony to represent the family.
For all time, visitors to the French village will know about the young man from Columbia, Mississippi, who gave his life so far from home in the cause of freedom.
