On the south side of the cemetery, specifically at geocoordinates 43.650125, 1.320042.

Cenotaph

A marble tomb with a standing rectangular white slab commemorating Lt Aviator Harold Gnesin, who was killed in a plane crash during World War II. The inscription is written in French in black lettering. It has a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress insignia on the top left corner, a crossed flag insignia in the top center, and a picture of Lt Gnessin on the top right corner of the slab.

Twenty-four-year-old Second Lieutenant Harold Morris Gnesin, from Mississippi, served on the 602nd Bomber Squadron (part of the 398th Bomb Group) at RAF Nuthampstead, Hertfordshire.

On June 25, 1944, Gnesin was in the crew flying B-17G Flying Fortress 42-102463 ‘Triangle W’ targeting the Luftwaffe base at Toulouse-Francazal and the Montbartier fuel depot. The B-17G was hit by flak and the number three engine was damaged. The starboard wing caught fire, and the aircraft crashed in the Les Syndics area of Cornebarrieu.

Although eight crewmembers bailed out from the B-17G, Gnesin did not make it and was killed in the crash. He was buried the next day in the local cemetery. Gnesin was exhumed in 1946 and laid to rest in a cemetery in the Lorraine region, together with other American servicemen, before he was moved again in 1949 to final rest in Long Island National Cemetery, New York.

Source of information: www.key.aero

Source of photos: www. findagrave.com 

IN MEMORIAM

Sous cette dalle reposa

le Lieutenant aviateur Harold M. GNESIN,

bombardier sur une forteresse

volant Boeing B-17G

abattue par la D.C.A. allemande

dans le ciel de Cornebarrieu le 25 juin 1944

au cors d'une mission

pour la libération de la France.

English Translation: 

IN MEMORY

Under this slab rested

Lieutenant aviator Harold M. GNESIN,

bomber on a fortress

flying Boeing B-17G

shot down by the German D.C.A.

in the sky of Cornebarrieu on June 25, 1944

during a mission

for the liberation of France.