On the east side of the road.

Monument

A rough-hewn stone bearing two clear plaques. The upper plaque commemorates Sgt Harless and Lt Zimmerman and is written in French. Currently, we don’t have a close-up shot of the lower plaque. So if you have it, you may e-mail us at info@uswarmemorials.org.

On July 17, 1944, Lieutenant James Zimermann, co-pilot, and Staff Sergeant Willis Harless, machine gunner, whose plane, a B24 Liberator bomber (744th Bomber Squadron, 456th Bomber Group, 15th US Air Force), had been hit by German anti-aircraft fire, and had landed on its belly, on the road to Baillargues. Lieutenant James Zimmermann survived the crash but was captured by German forces and became a prisoner of war. Staff Sergeant Willis Harless was Killed in Action. This incident is memorialized by this commemorative stele outside the Cimetière de Castries. The monument was inaugurated for the 70th anniversary of the crash of the B24 bomber. A local street is also named after Harless.

Source of photo: www.memorialgenweb.org

Upper Plaque:

A la memoire

du Lieutenant

James ZIMMERMAN

&

du Sergent

William HARLESS*

English Translation:

In Memory

of Lieutenant

James ZIMMERMAN

&

of the Sergeant

William HARLESS*

*Note:  Name is Willis Harless