Newspaper article: A Pilot from the Landing at Beaumais, Sunday
Translated from a French Newspaper article
(Note: Calvados is an excellent liquor only made in this region of France)
A
PATRIOT SAVED BY THE CALVADOS
On
the 18th of June, 1944, the battle of Normandy is raging. Returning from his mission aboard his
Spitfire MK 622, a Canadian pilot, Barry Needham, is hit by German DCA, above
the community of Bons-Tassilly. His
airplane catches fire. Seriously burned
on his hands and face, he has time to parachute and lands three hundred metres
from his airplane which had crashed.
Witness to this drama, an inhabitant of the community, Guy Oriot, about
20 years of age, runs to his aid but is captured by some SS. As soon as they were stopped, the two men are
driven to the Chateau de Beaumais, then occupied by the SS.
Informed by some neighbours, Mr. & Mrs. Hoste intercede through a
German colonel who is staying with them.
Due to their pleas in favour of the young man, and without doubt, in
recognition of the quality of the Calvados from the Hoste vineyard, that he
particularly appreciated, he consents to intervene with the SS of
Beaumais. Guy Oriot would be freed the
same evening. As for the pilot, after
having been cared for by the Germans, he would be released at the time of the
‘liberation’ in the month of August.
Upon the
involvement of Michel Rainfroy and Jean-Claude Clouet, Barry Needham,
accompanied by four members of his family, would return to Beaumais, Sunday
afternoon in order to see once again the castle that he has never forgotten,
nor the French person, since disappeared, who had risked death while wanting to
hide him. The next day he must attend
the organized searches at Bons-Tassilly in order to recover his Spitfire
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