Stèle Fernand Bessy

This commemorative plaque was installed in memory of Fernand Bessy, a Maximois resident who died in tragic circumstances on 15 August 1944.

The young man lost his life under fire from a Thompson submachine gun, mistakenly discharged by an American commando who mistook him for a German soldier as he ran along the barrier wall of the ‘Pilon’ farm.

This terrible outcome is all the more poignant given that eleven months earlier, Fernand's father, Louis Bessy, had also been killed by the Germans in similar circumstances.