EMBRACING CLOSURE FOR CAPT. ANDERSON AND LT. LANGMAID
Sutcliffe grew close to two pilots who were killed during the War. One was Capt. Robert S. Anderson, who was killed by small-arms fire over Canisy, France, on July 26, 1944. “His mother refused to believe he was dead until she talked to someone face to face who had seen it. When I came back in November, she flew out to see me, and I told her what happened.” The other was Lt. Norman Langmaid. “He and I were very close, being the only guys from Rhode Island.” Langmaid was hit by flak and died near Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944. Sutcliffe has visited Langmaid’s grave several times. He always wondered what happened to him that fateful day, “It’s one of those things that happen in war. A comrade loses a buddy.” Did he die in agony, trapped in a flaming torch fed by fuel and ammunition? Sutcliffe returned to Normandy in 2005 with Langmaid’s cousin, Richard Shover and his wife, Pat. Eyewitnesses to the crash told them that Langmaid was slumped over in the cockpit when he crashed, indicating that he was hit by small-arms fire and unable to belly-land the plane. Once enemy troops vacated the area, villagers built a coffin and buried Langmaid in a small churchyard, where he remained until Graves Registration moved him to his current location at Colleville-sur-Mer. In honor of Langmaid and the visit, the mayor and most of the town’s inhabitants held a memorial service. At a church, they were asked to unveil a granite plaque inscribed with Langmaid’s name and date of death. Through an interpreter, Sutcliffe told his hosts of his common background and friendship with Langmaid, saying, “We thank the people of SaintMartin-de-Blagny, who risked their lives in order to remove Norman from his broken plane and bury him with honor in your village. Norman will be forever young as he sleeps beneath the hollowed ground overlooking the beaches of Normandy.”