It’s the early hours of June 6th. 1944. D-Day.
A medic falls hard into a muddy field just outside of a small village in Normandy.
He can hear cracks of gunfire and quickly gets out of his parachute.
Ken Moore rushes towards the village.
He spots a church with a big red cross on it and rushes in.
Inside is Robert Wright, another medic.
The 2 men greet each other and quickly get to work.
It would be the start of an episode that would go down in history.
The silence of the church is broken as the door bursts open and injured soldiers start to arrive.
Without supply crates they just have their medic bags and pocket first aid kits.
Outside the war intensifies, the Germans have pushed into the village and the fight has become a brutal house to house brawl.
Inside the church, Ken can hear the cries of the injured.
He can’t just sit by and do nothing. Protected by just his red cross on his helmet and his armband, he ventures out into the fray.
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Back in France, Kenneth Moore sees an injured man in the distance.
Thinking quickly he grabs the church’s old wooden wheelbarrow before running across the open road.
Several houses away a German soldier spots Ken’s figure.
Lining up his rifle, he takes aim, he has him in his sights, finger on the trigger ready to fire…
But he sees the red cross and relaxes his finger on the trigger.
“Medic! Medic!”
Ken makes it to the other side unscathed and finds soldiers from the 101st Airborne giving provisionary aid to the wounded man.
Together they pull the man to the wheelbarrow and Ken runs back for the church.
He crosses the open road, ducking and running through the storm of lead and into safety.
Territory is won and lost across the hours and the two medics keep bravely venturing out for more,
risking their lives to save more injured American soldiers.
With evening approaching Ken rushes through the door carrying a wounded man.
But this time the church falls into a shocked silence.
Everyone stares at Ken and his patient, for he isn’t American.
It’s a German.
Ken brings the German to a pew and administers aid, completely ignoring the intense gaze of the other men.
Robert silently approaches and without hesitation helps tend to the German.
One by one the stares turned away, nobody daring to object.
When asked why he helped the Germans, Ken later said
“They were young men, just like us. They were just wearing different uniforms.”
After that more Germans were brought in for treatment.
Inside the church the work continues until the door slams open.
Standing there silhouetted by the evening light is a German soldier.
His gun is drawn ready to fire. Nobody moves.
The German soldier locks eyes with the medics and notices the small group of Germans in the corner.
Slowly he lowers his gun, performs the sign of the cross, and leaves.
Robert exhales with relief.
Now seeing the danger he grabs the rifles and imposes a strict no weapons rule,
forcing everyone regardless of side or rank to leave their guns at the doorway.
With the day turning to dawn it’s becoming clear that the 101st needs to retreat.
Their superior officer arrives at the church warning Robert and Ken that they will be forced to pull back, but they can’t take the wounded.
Ken and Robert take one look at each other and declare they’ll both stay.
The Germans take back the village and start to bring their wounded to the Church asking for help.
The church was becoming full to the point that the floor had to be used.
Those that were not expected to last the night were given the spots closest to the altar.
The night passes and there is a thump at the door.
A German officer and his men are at the church entrance.
The men proceed to enter but Robert tells him there is a no gun policy and even the Germans are not exempt.
The officer smiles and nods to his men.
They are hesitant but follow his instructions.
Once inside, the officer thanks the medics for their help and asks if there’s anything they need.
Roberts replies:
“Supplies and a doctor”
“I can get it to you in 24 hours.”
The pair shake hands, and the officer leaves.
By midday the fight is back underway.
The Screaming Eagles are pushing back with renewed energy, regaining the lost ground.
Throughout it all the medics brave the open, but this time something different happenes.
HALT!
For whenever and wherever the two men appeared, the battle would stop, so they could pass.
The Americans regain the town house by house, and with the German retreat mortars begin to drop.
There's a crash of glass and a thunk as a mortar rolls along the church floor.
By some incredible miracle it was faulty.
Had it exploded the whole church would’ve been reduced to rubble.
Robert quickly picks it up and throws it back out from where it came.
Suddenly a barrage of bullets pierces through the church’s windows, raining glass over several wounded.
Robert peeks out the door and spots a Sherman tank firing away with its hull machine gun.
He immediately runs out seeking to stop the tank, but when he does, he finds one of the 101st has got there before him.
An American Lieutenant arrives to inform the medics that they needed access to the church steeple to use as an observation post.
Ken point blank refuses, stating,
“You can’t do that.”
The Lieutenant confidently used his rank to get the medics to back down, but Robert stood firm.
This church was a safe haven for the injured and it would NOT be weaponized.
Over the course of 3 days and 2 nights they had tended to over 80 people, of which all but 2 would live to see another day.
The Church still stands today.
There’s a monument to the actions of the two medics and multiple stained-glass windows in honor of them and the liberating forces.
The most poignant reminder is the pews, that still bare the stains of that fateful day.
There’s also an unassuming cracked tile that marks the spot where the mortar round miraculously failed to detonate.
Wright wished to be buried in the grounds of the church after his death, but bureaucracy made it impossible.
But even after death his will was not to be denied, somehow some of his ashes were brought into France and buried in the churchyard,
where a simple plaque marked R.E.W. for his initials marks the place where the brave medic finally returned.
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