207975 P/O. Henri Edouard Dube Royal Canadian Air Force 425 Squadron from:Edmundston, New Brunswick (d.8th Aug 1944) A distant cousin showed up on our steps Monday and the surprise about all this is that she's traveling across the Maritimes on a "scooter" with two dogs. Apparently, she was on a quest to find out about her grandmother's family (my grandfather's sister). What is amazing about all this is that her grandmother lost her husband during WWII. He was a Canadian pilot that crashed during a bombing mission over NAZI Germany. Through her entire life, she had never found out as to what had happened to him other than he was missing in action. Alexandra’s grandmother lived till 94, ever wondering if he was dead or if he'd ever return home. I didn't have a clue who this cousin was but it turns out that Alexandra is quite inquisitive and had done a lot of research on our family, the Roussel Clan. Anyway, she was curious about finding information about her grandmother’s “love of her life” so was in Edmundston doing research on the subject matter. She couldn't find much on the individual but found out where we lived.
Meanwhile, in 2010, my other great uncle (her grandmother's and my grandfather's brother) had sent me some information about this. Apparently, he was a good friend of this pilot when they were kids and by pure coincidence, in 2004, he was in Olizy, France, on a bus tour where he found a commemorative monument honoring this pilot by the name of Henri Dubé. He and his crew had been shot down and they had to crash land in France. They were rescued by the French Liberation Army but Henri decided to carry on to Paris on his own. He took off, eventually met up with an American pilot and they headed towards the capital. They got caught by Nazi soldiers and sent to a prison camp. They escaped from there and got again captured but this time they were shot to death. They were thrown in a mass grave but eventually the people of Olizy, unearthed the bodies and gave them a proper burial, complete with the story on the monument. My Uncle Ray, who lives in California, knew that I was a military history buff and had sent me a photo of the memorial with the explanation. So you can imagine how Alexandra (the granddaughter) felt when she found out what had happened to her grandfather. – Talk about a series of coincidence and a sense of closure for her. It's just too bad that her grandmother never lived long enough to find out the truth.
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