Battery Corporal
          Willis S. Cole
       Military Museum 
                                         A Non-Profit Corporation
                                            13444 124th Ave NE
                                   Kirkland, WA  98034-5403 U.S.A.

                                         
 1^st Lt. Richard Francis Noble, O-453171
             United States Army Air Force
              731^st Bombardment Squadron (H)
                        452^nd Bombardment Group (H)
                                   45^th Combat Wing
                           3^rd Bombardment Division
                                       8^th Air Force
     
             Pilot: 'Lucky Lady, B-17G, SN: 42-9941'
                            Shot Down: 12 May, 1944
                                       Born: 20 August, 1918

      Executed By Germans When Captured While Evading
                                     8 August, 1944
 

  Place of Death: On the flat in a woods, close to the
    village of Olizy, Ardennes, France, above a place
    called: 'Le Canapé'

             
                    In the early evening of 8 August, 1944, a small boy
            climbed from the village into the woods located at
            that time, at the top of the place called: Le Canapé.
                Fifty-fours later, in what is now an open field, that
            boy, now a man, Mr. BOUDIN, points to a small
            cross he placed at the approximate place he found
            the two men particularly buried, with their heads and
            bound hands above the earth, shot between the eyes.
                He remembers their hands well, it obvious that
            the two men had been forced to dig their graves with
            their own hands.
                At the time, Mr. BOUDIN's father was the Mayor
            of Olizy, DEPARTMENT OF ARDENNES
            Arrondissement of VOUZIERS
            Canton de Vouziers
                     Cross outlined via computer modification.
                 Photograph By: Mr. Daniel SERVAIS
                 Mayor of Olizy
|                 Department Des Ardennes
                 Arrondissement de Vouziers
                 Canton de Granpre
                 Maire D'Olizy-Primate  08250 FRANCE            

   Executed with R.C.A.F. Pilot Officer: Henry Dube
Buried At: American World War Two Ardennes Cemetery: D-14-19.
    Married to Betty N. (Noble) Carrell, one son: Richard (Francis Noble, II) N. (Noble) Carrell
Lt. Noble grew up in New Concord, Ohio, the son of Nellie F. and Burl C. Noble.

                          Village Cemetery, Olizy, France

                           PILOT OFFICER
                                 H.E. DUBE
                 WIRELESS OP./AIR GUNNER
               ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE
                                             8 AUGUST 1944   AGE 26

        The grave of Pilot Officer Henri E. Dube, executed with 1st Lt.
Richard F. Noble on 8 August, 1944, at the top of the place called
the "couch" at the "canapés" at Olizy.  1st Lt. Noble was in a grave
to the left of P.O. Dube's until his remains were removed by the Americans
in 1948.

           They shall Not Grow Old, published by the British Commonwealth
Air Training Museum, at Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, has the following
listing:

DUBE, HENRI EDOUARD P/O(WAG) J86139/R96579.  From Edmunston,
New Brunswick.  Killed In Action Apr24/44 age 26 #425 Alouette Squadron
(Je Te Plumerai) Halifax aircraft # LW 591 missing during a night attack
against Karlsruhe, Germany.  Two Canadians. F/O.s J.W. L'Abbe and
T.G.A.J. Gravel were taken Prisoner Of War.  Three Canadians, Sgt.s
Whalen, Girard, and Michaud were either Evaders or taken P.O.W, one
of the crew, not Canadian, missing believed killed.  Pilot Officer Wireless
Operator Air Gunner Dube is buried in the Communal Cemetery at Olizy,
France.

   Again, our research has lead us to a person, or event, that some written
history has wrong.  We know what happened to P.O. DUBE on 8 August, 1944,
and not on April 24, 1944.  P.W. DUBE obviously evaded from April 24, 1944
until he was captured with 1st Lt. Noble and executed on 8 August, 1944.

    At the end of July, 1944, we know they left the Resistance Camp where both
men were at, with a French Freedom Fighter helper.  Soon thereafter they were
handed over to a Mr. Mathieu, of Charleville, France.  After spending one hour
in his home, they left with Mr. Mathieu to handed on to the next safe station on
the route to the Allied Lines, west of Paris.

    All three men were captured soon after leaving the house and Mr. Matieu was
put in the local jail and Lt. Noble and P.O. Dube was put aboard a train to be sent
to a Prisoner of War Camp in Germany.

    We now know that the two men escaped off the train and arrived near Olizy,
France, by 8 August, 1944, where they were again captured by the Germans and
later executed the same day.

    Mr. Matieu, along with 30 other French Freedom Fighters were held in the
Charleville jail until 29 August, 1944, when the Allied lines approached the city.
All 31 men were taken out and executed by the Germans before they retreated
from Charleville.

    A memorial plaque for Lt. Noble and P.O. Dube is now being prepared by
Quiring Monument, Inc., Seattle, Washington, for installation on the church
where the two men were held until they were taken to the height above "La
Canapé, at Olizy, forced to dig their own graves with their bare hands, buried
alive and executed by the Germans.  The plans of the museum, calls for the new
memorial to be installed by/on Memorial Day, 1999.

    This memorial will be one of four memorials placed in France by the museum
in 1999.  You can help with this Remembrance/Souvenir project by making a
tax deductible donation to the museum.

Last Updated: June 06, 2006 10:20:31 AM