Dixon soldier killed 80 years ago in World War II honored annually in France

Each year on Aug. 12, a small community in France holds a memorial ceremony to thank a Dixon man, an American soldier who was killed overseas during World War II while fighting to secure their freedom.

Cpl. Ronald Baker of Dixon was a Jeep driver for the 167th Engineer Combat Battalion in 1944. He was shot and killed by a German machine gunner about two months after D-Day, the June 6 Allied invasion of Normandy, while stationed at an Allied base camp in an area of northwest France known as Mayenne, according to uswarmemorials.org.

After the war ended, the people of Mayenne in 1948 installed a granite marker along the side of the road where Baker was killed outside the town of Villaines-la-Juhel – a community within Mayenne. The monument displays a picture of Baker with a gold inscription below it that reads, “lci, le 12 Aout 1944, tomba pour notre liberation the soldat Americain Ronald Baker.” In English, this translates to, “Here, on 12 August 1944, the American soldier Ronald Baker fell for our liberation,” according to uswarmemorials.org.

A ceremony is held on the anniversary of Baker’s death. Organized by the Villaines-la-Juhel mayor’s office, the road is closed off so that the mayor, council, members of the fire service, the resistance society and community members can march to Baker’s monument, Villaines-la-Juhel resident Margaret Yeardley said.

Margaret, her husband Alan Wright and her daughter Alison Yeardley are originally from Sheffield, England, but they became regular attendees of the service after Margaret and Alan moved to the community.

“I was like, ‘I wonder if they know in America that this small little town in France honors this American soldier every year,’ ” Alison said.

The small rural town is home to about 3,000 people. During the war, it was along the route taken by U.S. Gen. George S. Patton’s army during the liberation of France.

At the memorial, a speech is given that tells the story of how Baker was killed, Margaret said.

“I live in an area of northern France known as Mayenne ... which at that time was completely occupied by the Germans,” the speech begins.

In August 1944, the Allies were nearing the end of a multi-stage operation to encircle the German soldiers. It was then that Gen. Patton ordered his 3rd Armored Division to help close the Argentan-Falaise Pocket, which was an area heavily occupied by the German army. On Aug. 12, the last major battle of Normandy began.

That morning, Baker along with Lt. Orphan Zeigler, Cpl. Virgil Newlin and Cpl. Edward Nicholson were on the road to Mayenne to chart possible routes ahead of Patton’s army. Just outside Villaines-la-Juhel, the group was attacked, and Baker was killed. Ziegler was wounded and taken prisoner along with Newlin and Nicholson, according to the speech.

“The next day, Sunday, the 13th of August, the U.S. Army progressed rapidly to Mayenne to find that the Germans had deserted during the night and the town was liberated,” according to the speech.

Shortly after, on Aug. 25, 1944, France was freed from German occupation when Paris was liberated.

Germany surrendered May 8, 1945, in Berlin, officially ending the war in Europe.

“Every year on the 12th of August, Ronald Baker is remembered by the people of Villaines and a monument to his memory is decorated with flags and flowers,” the speech continues.

“There was a brass band playing La Marseillaise (France’s national anthem) and it was a beautiful service,” Margaret said of the 2024 ceremony.

During the 70th anniversary, in 2014, more than 100 people marched. A relative of Baker who drove a 1940s army Jeep decorated with American flags also was in attendance.

Last year, in 2023, “Alison had the honor of laying the wreath,” Margaret said.

Alison, who now lives in Boston, became an American citizen about three years ago. Margaret told the mayor at the ceremony about Alison’s citizenship and she was asked to lay the flowers with the head of the fire service – known as the pompier in France.

“I was quite choked up about it because I was like, oh my God, I’ve been asked to do this as an American,” Alison said. “It was a real honor.”

That year, Alison and Margaret also sang America’s national anthem.

The town also named a road after Baker, “probably within 300 yards of where he died,” Alan said. Located in the south section of town, the road is called Impasse Ronald Baker.

Baker enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 25, 1942, about nine months after the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. Before enlisting, he was working in textile manufacturing, according to World War II enlistment records on archives.gov.

As a teenager in the early 1930s Baker was a student at Dixon High School, school yearbook records show.

During school, he was interested in literature and science, participating in the literary society for his first two years and in biology club his senior year, according to the 1932 yearbook.

Born in 1914, Baker was 30 years old when he was killed. He never married and had no children, according to archives.gov.

He is buried at the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy along with 4,404 other Americans who died during the Allied invasion of France in 1944, according to ambc.gov.

“Americans died so that French people could be free,” Alison said. “I think that’s something that (the French) always just acknowledge.”

Alan said all of France’s World War II cemeteries are well looked after.

“Obviously the British War Graves Commission looks after the British graves,” he said. “But the Canadian and American graves are really well looked after on a regular basis.”

American war graves in foreign countries are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission. As for day-to-day care, it’s the people who look after them.

“There are quite a few World War II graves around our area,” Margaret said. “We usually try to go around to put (flowers) there or to just stand and say thank you.”

Alison said France’s war memorials remind her of those in Washington, D.C.

“It’s just something that I think France and America do very, very well,” Alison said.

The French “carry these things very heavily,” Alan said. “It’s so important to them because they got their freedom.”