page_title: Bazenville
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bazenville / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Wing Commander James E 'johnny' Johnson at Bazenville Landing Ground, Normandy, 31 July 1944 The RAF's top scoring fighter pilot flying in north west Europe, Wing Commander Johnny Johnson, seen with his pet Labrador dog 'Sally'. He recorded 38 victories, though at the time of the photograph his total was 35. He commanded No 127 Wing composed of three Canadian Spitfire squadrons. The decorations on his tunic are a DSO with two Bars and a DFC with one Bar.
context_page_description: Bazenville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.
  Bazenville Airfield was a former World War II Advanced Landing Ground, mostly located outside the commune of Bazenville 1.8 km to the north-east.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bazenvillais or Bazenvillaises.
context_section_description: Bazenville was liberated on the same day as the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. An interim Canadian aerodrome (referred to as Bazenville Airfield, Advanced Landing Ground B-2 Bazenville, or B-2 Crépon) was built commencing the following night near the commune in a large part of the triangle formed by the Bazenville, Crépon, and Villiers-le-Sec villages.
  It was on this aerodrome that the French ace Pierre Clostermann flew, on 11 June 1944, for the first time in France after his entry into the war in 1942: "All my life I will remember the people of Bazenville the first French to whom I spoke".
caption: Wing Commander James "Johnny" Johnson at Bazenville Normandy 31 July 1944
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