La Roche De Glun Memorial

La Roche De Glun Memorial , monument to First Lieutenant William F. Kuykendall.

Lieutenant Kuykendall was part of the 524th Fighter Squadron of the 27th Fighter Group (US Air Corps) during World War II. Based with his unit at Le Luc en Provence (Var), he was doing reconnaissance in the Rhône valley with two other P 47 planes. This was his last mission, operation n° AO-64 which would have consisted of spotting enemy convoys to the north of Valence.

His plane was shot down on August 29, 1944

Lieutenant Kuykendall's P-47 Thunderbolt was shot down by German soldiers as he Straffing over Chateaubourg, Ardèche.
The plane fell into the Rhône at La Roche de Glun, the pilot parachuted alive on the ground on the right bank of the Rhône and was captured by the German soldiers he had just attacked.
Prisoner, he is part of an arcelled convoy by Resistance ambushes and Allied air attacks. Lieutenant Kuykendall will be seriously injured during these attacks and taken to a motorized field hospital halfway between Vienne and Lyon. (Fort of Feyzin) Very seriously injured, he was transferred to the German Croix Rousse hospital in Lyon where he died. August 30th, 1944
Buried in the Croix Rousse cemetery in Lyon by Red Cross nurses after Libération of Lyon,
Few years after end of war his body will be transported to the American military cemetery in Liège Bastogne in Belgium where he rests for eternity. The Kuykendall family originated from Holland.

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Source

• Text: Nico Courtine
• Photos: Nico Courtine