My great uncle, Clarence, lost his life in the liberation of Paris. He has a memorial on a corner in Mitry Mory that the city put up in his honor in 1999. I often think of how my family's life would have been different, had he made it home.

Bottom Plaque:

At this place on August 29th 1944 Sgt Clarence P. Hughes of the 893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion gave his life for the liberation of France

Top Plaque:

He came to fight for freedom
To a land he had never seen
For a people he had never met
For his success he gave the ultimate sacrifice
May God bless his soul
The Hughes Family Kentucky-New York USA September 2000

Here is a document, translated from French, detailing his death:

quote:
SERGEANT CLARENCE P. HUGHES.

Tuesdays, August 29, it rains a good part of the night! In the morning the American troops cautiously resume their progress along the line of Chemin de Fer towards MORY under the fire of the Germans. Two tanks of the company of the 893th Tank Destroyer BATTALION went ahead in recognition. They reach the location of the current FOOTBALL field that the SNCF . puts at the disposal of the ASMC , near the school (missing today). The exchange of fire between the German batteries and the American parts located on the side of MITRY LE NEUF continues.

In the late morning, Sergeant Clarence P. HUGUES, accompanied by two MITRYENS who guide him, leaves his tank and continues on foot to the limit of the SNCF city to locate and estimate the importance of German forces ambushed behind the mounds that border the north-east side of the avenue of the station opposite the street of Val de Mory. He was killed instantly by the bursting of a shell. Is it a German or American shell? Some witnesses say that Sergeant HUGUES, finding the firing of American guns or mortars too long to reach the Germans would have asked for it to be shortened. It would have been, a little too much ... His body lies, mutilated, in the middle of the avenue of the train station about ten meters from the beginning of the linden trees. Despite the risks, the Germans are less than 50 m across the street, a MITRYENNE will cover a blanket, another throws a flower, then another. According to a witness, in the evening, when American services picked him up, he was covered with flowers.

The last picture taken of him (on top of the tank) 2 days before his death. As I understand it, the kid next to the tank destroyer became the mayor of Mitry Mory...and was the one who pushed for the memorial.