The Hero Who Saved a Cathedral
Sometimes two events come together to remind us of a very special moment in history. A few days ago the 2024 edition of the “Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage” concluded. This is an annual event in which devout Catholics, typically numbering more than...
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Sometimes two events come together to remind us of a very special moment in history. A few days ago the 2024 edition of the “Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage” concluded. This is an annual event in which devout Catholics, typically numbering more than 15,000, make a 60 mile trek from Paris to the renowned gothic cathedral of Chartres to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. The pilgrimage, which has taken place for the better part of a millennium, occupies an important spiritual place, particularly among those who wish to see a revival of traditional Catholicism. It is especially fitting that it should culminate with a Mass celebrated at a 12th Century cathedral, described in its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as “one of the most beautiful and historically significant cathedrals in all of Europe.”
[I]t nonetheless deserves our attention, a reminder that the so-called “dash across France” was never the bloodless romp that the history books want to portray.
UNESCO also notes that the cathedral is well-preserved, which takes us to the second event, and with it, a very special story for this Memorial Day weekend. In August 1944, General George S. Patton’s Third Army had just been activated as part of Operation Cobra, the “breakout” from Normandy that marked the beginning of the destruction of the German armies west of the Seine and the liberation of France. Racing across France, the XXth Corps of the Third Army had liberated Le Mans and Angers and was in the process of outflanking Paris to the south. The small city of Chartres stood squarely in its path, a logistics hub for the German army and the location of an important Luftwaffe airbase. Although the rapid advance had disrupted any coherent line of defense, the Germans still fought desperately to defend as many key strongpoints as possible.
One such strongpoint was Chartres, a place where several key roads came together, with important bridges over the river Eure. For the Wehrmacht, holding Chartres, if only for a few critical days, meant allowing more units to escape eastward and reconstitute a defensive barrier. For Patton, seizing Chartres on the run meant trapping more Germans, maintaining the momentum of the Third Army’s drive toward the German border, and, above all, making sure that the retreating Germans remained off-balance. Two divisions of the XXth Corps, the 7th Armored and the 5th Infantry, were tasked with taking Chartres, the armored if it could be seized on the run, the infantry if a more deliberate assault proved necessary. (READ MORE from James H. McGee: Pro-Hamas Panty Raids: A Destructive Dynamic)
On August 16, 1944, the 7th Armored had run into increasingly heavy resistance as it pushed from the outskirts into the center of Chartres. The city is located on the plain of Beauce, the center of farming country, the terrain flat for miles around. The cathedral sits on the only hill of significance, and its towers, the tallest some 371 feet high, are visible for miles around. For the approaching American GIs, not simply visible, but oppressively so, for such dominant features were almost always associated with German artillery observers, looking down with binoculars from on high, calling down the dreaded 88s on anything that moved.
Even as the 5th Infantry moved in to take over the fight, riflemen of the 7th Armored found themselves drawing sniper fire from the cathedral, significant in and of itself, all the more so because it seemingly confirmed that the Germans were using the cathedral as an observation post. As these riflemen returned fire, the call went up the chain of command for an artillery barrage to flatten the cathedral.
At XXth Corps Headquarters, the request came to Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith, a young colonel and the chief of Operations (G-3) on the Corps general staff. Griffith had already been in the city the night before, and, while he knew of the reported sniper fire, he also knew that the order to destroy an historical structure of such significance should not be given lightly. With only his jeep driver as an escort, he drove to the front lines around the cathedral, then through no man’s land to the entrance to the cathedral itself. He entered the cathedral and searched it, including climbing hundreds of steps up into the bell tower. Satisfied that the Germans were no longer present, he blocked the order to bombard the cathedral.
Welborn Griffith, West Point photograph, 1925. Col. Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr., is credited with personally saving historic Chartres Cathedral during World War II. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
A happy ending then? Sadly, not entirely. Already far forward of his post back in the rear echelon at Corps Headquarters, he continued to reconnoiter, soon encountering a strong German patrol. He withdrew, found an American tank and some infantry, and led them forward to deal with the German patrol. Standing exposed behind the turret of the tank, directing the tank and the infantry forward, he was shot and killed. French villagers maintained a vigil over his body until it could be recovered. A plaque now marks the place of his death, and his courage was recognized with the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Today Colonel Griffith’s body lies alongside some 4,404 of his comrades in the Brittany-American Cemetery in St. James, France. Less famous than the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, smaller than the Lorraine and Luxembourg American cemeteries, filled with those killed in the massive slugging matches at Metz, the Siegfried Line, and the Battle of the Bulge, it nonetheless deserves our attention, a reminder that the so-called “dash across France” was never the bloodless romp that the history books want to portray.
I grew up with the story of the decision not to destroy Chartres Cathedral. As I’ve recounted elsewhere, my dad was a junior officer in the 5th Infantry Division, and the fight for Chartres was among the stories he read to me from the division history. But the story of Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith was absent from that narrative, largely because it was written in 1946, and Griffith’s heroism received little public recognition in the U.S. until many years later — and this largely because of the French in the little community where he was killed.
On this Memorial Day weekend, I think he deserves to be remembered with a hero’s salute. He deserves to be remembered alongside the hundreds of thousands of Americans who, over the life of our nation, have given their lives to protect our freedom. But he also deserves his salute because of the moral character of his actions on August 16, 1944. It would have been easy to allow the artillery bombardment to go forward. Not doing so meant potentially risking the lives of dozens, if not hundreds of the GIs for whom he was responsible as a senior officer. And many other officers would have made the decision, one way or the other, from the relative safety of his Headquarters, and no one would have faulted them for doing so. But he decided that it was important enough to risk his life to make sure, and then to risk his life yet again doing something that colonels might reasonably have delegated to a lieutenant. (READ MORE: Gentlemen, Scholars, Thugs: The Real Heroes Behind The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare)
On this Memorial Day weekend then, a week after thousands of believers enjoyed the inspirational beauty of Chartres Cathedral, let’s pause to remember Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith of Quanah, Texas, West Point Class of 1925. November 10, 1901 — August 16, 1944.
James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counter-terrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His 2022 novel, Letter of Reprisal, tells the tale of a desperate mission to destroy a Chinese bioweapon facility hidden in the heart of the central African conflict region, and a forthcoming sequel carries the Reprisal team from the hills of West Virginia to the forests of Belarus. You can find it on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions, and on Kindle Unlimited.
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