Local Piper sounds the end of the chruch ceremony

This story begins in the town of Jalhay, Belgium in August of 2004. Every year the town celebrates an aircrew that helped preserve them from a Nazi attack in WWII.

Wreaths to be laid at the monument

The aircrew, aboard a Halifax bomber, were doing a mission over Belgium when they saw the attack taking place on the village. With little armament left, they threw what they could at the Nazi attackers.

Veterans of the war

As the aircrew attempted to defend the town, their plane was shot down. All aboard died. Most were British aircrew, but there was one Canadian gentleman aboard.

The monument

One man in the town saw the shoot down of the plane and went to the hillside where it crashed. There, he recovered the bodies and hid them in the local forest. After the war was over, the bodies were returned to their next of kin, and the man erected a monument to their sacrifice. The man who erected the monument is dead, but his family carries on the tradition on that same Belgian hillside where the crash occured. Every year, they all get together, place wreaths on the monument, and spend the afternoon in a lavish lunch. Today, all that remains of the plane is a piece of metal, which remains a part of the memorial itself.