However, in the early hours of the night of July 23, 1944 a British Royal Air Force Stirling aircraft belonging to 190 squadron crashed there.

The aircraft was heading for a drop zone close to Joinville[3] (about 30 miles to the north east of Graffigny) but had become lost after passing through a severe electric storm in the Troyes area.

[4] Whilst trying to fix its position at low altitude and in very poor visibility, the aircraft hit the high ground known as la montagne close to Graffigny.

Five airmen and eight British soldiers from the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment died in the crash and are buried in the local cemetery.

The aircraft's navigator - Canadian Flying Officer Joseph Vinet - was cared for at Ferme Des Noyers by a Madame Phillips who lived in the nearby village of Brainville with her three children.

She was rewarded for that by a hand grenade attack on her house during the period known as "l'epuration" immediately after the Liberation of France - presumably because of her German connections.