Memory Lane
Combat de Kernabat Quillien, July 15, 1944
1-On July 14, 1944, maquisards from Scaër received the message "Ie vent souffle dans les blés" announcing a parachutage d'armes the following night, on the terrain code-named "Pêche", in Kervir. Ie first plane flies over the area at 0:30 a.m.
2-Sixteen tons of equipment are dropped and transported by resistance fighters from Coray, Rosporden and Scaër to Kernabatwhere the first carts arrive at 3 a.m..
3- Warned, the Germans, flock in large numbers. They request the reinforcement of a reconnaissance aircraft to fly over the area. the first shots break out at Guerveur, then the Germans attack Kernabat in force between 12 and 12:30 p.m. the maquisards from Scaër then ask for help from the resistance fighters from Rosporden, established since the previous day at Quillien, in Tourc'h. A hundred or so of them descend into the valley and head up towards Kernabat, when they come under fire from enemy machine guns. Faced with unequal forces, the maquisards retreated to Quillien, fighting bitterly from embankment to embankment.
4- At the same time, another group of Scaërois from the moulin de Kergoaler launched a lightning attack on the German rear at Kernabat.
3- Warned, the Germans, flock in large numbers. They request the reinforcement of a reconnaissance aircraft to fly over the area. the first shots break out at Guerveur, then the Germans attack Kernabat in force between 12 and 12:30 p.m. the maquisards from Scaër then ask for help from the resistance fighters from Rosporden, established since the previous day at Quillien, in Tourc'h. A hundred or so of them descend into the valley and head up towards Kernabat, when they come under fire from enemy machine guns. Faced with unequal forces, the maquisards retreated to Quillien, fighting bitterly from embankment to embankment.
4- At the same time, another group of Scaërois from the moulin de Kergoaler launched a lightning attack on the German rear at Kernabat.
At around 4:30 pm, the fighting ended. The Germanshave lost several dozen soldiers. In reprisals, around 5 p.m., they martyrize, then shoot in Kernabat resistants whom they had taken prisonersand set fire to several farms, in Quillien and Kernabat. "At 8pm the nightmare ends. A gloomy silence envelops the still smoking countryside, littered with the remains of eighteen patriots."
After "Les Combattants de l'ombre en Cornouaille" by Christian Quénéhervé
Contribution and photo credit Philippe Boudot.
Contribution and photo credit Philippe Boudot.
