the most modern french battle tank is named in honor of this world war ii general.

6, 1944, which led to (the village’s) liberation.” Plelo’s current mayor, Yves Le Coqu, wrote Hamsley last August informing him of the council’s action in naming him an honorary citizen of the village “in testimony of our gratitude for your courageous action of Aug. Jean Querrou, a member of the French Resistance at that time, told a newspaper recently that “we old combatants recall with our heart” the American officer they had helped “to save the inhabitants of Plelo from a dramatic situation.” In a 1975 French history titled “The Battle of Brittany,” author Jean Joseph Barsel writes that the Americans “saved the people of Plelo from death and destruction, as the Germans had put everything into place for the total destruction of the village.” Herve sought out a number of the rural area’s older residents, among them a former mayor of Plelo who was a boy of 15 and one of those scheduled for execution in the town square at the time of the German-American battle. The ex-colonel, Robert Dwan of Tucson, spends much of his time “trying to get belated recognition for deserving members of the 15th Cavalry,” in which he also served as a platoon leader in France.ĭwan contacted Yvon Herve, a history buff who lives in Brittany near Plelo, and Roger Gergaud, another resident of the area, to uncover details of the battle. They pieced together eyewitness accounts and consulted military records and village archives.

He never knew the full significance of the side trip to Plelo or that his platoon’s cavalry charge would go down in village history-until last year.Īmateur French historians and a retired American colonel pinpointed Hamsley as the man on the spot and researched the details of the military encounter. We figured it was just another day’s work,” Hamsley says. By the time a sketchy report was made, it became a footnote to ensuing battles. Hamsley says things were moving too fast for a debriefing of his platoon’s activities at Plelo. Hamsley and his tank platoon quickly left Plelo, met up with their main column the next day and were soon engaged in the battle near Plouigneau that earned him the Bronze Star.

The most modern french battle tank is named in honor of this world war ii general.