Le Carpont, stopover on the martyrs' route

by , Grasset Jacques

"On Sunday August 6, 1944 around noon, German soldiers left L'île à Bois to go and free their comrades from the Créac'h Maout semaphore garrison, prisoners of the Resistants.

On their way, the farm of Kroas-Hent, located at the top of this Carpont coast.

Yves and Victor L'ANTHOEN, 17 and 22, and their friend Yves LE BERRE, 18, chat in the courtyard after lunch.

All of a sudden, at around 1:30 pm, they are surrounded by around twenty soldiers who point their machine guns at them and brutalize them with rifle butts.

Madame L'ANTHOEN, née Adèle LE GUEVEL, 57, alerted by Victor's cries of pain from a broken arm, comes out of the house. She insists that these innocent young men be released. But to no avail... The three of them are dragged along the road and lined up against an embankment 150 m from the farm.

"foutu omp!" (we're screwed) Yves LE BERRE repeats. They're about to shoot us, when Arthur L'ANTHOEN appears, rushing across the fields. He begs on his knees for his children back... Only Victor is freed.

An officer coming from the farm tells him, "you're off to see Madame".

This phrase takes on its full meaning when Victor returns to the farm to find his mother, alone, lying in the barn, an explosive bullet in her kidneys. She lies dying in his arms, while two soldiers in the yard talk and laugh.

For Yves le BERRE and Yves L'ANTHOEN the ordeal continues. Going down this côte du Carpont, Jean-Baptiste kERNIVINEN, 45, who fetches his butter from his sister's as he does every Sunday, is stopped too.

From everywhere, the crackling of mitraillettes can be heard as the three of them are shot.

Adèle is on her deathbed, and at around 5am, a noise:

Yves L'ANTHOEN appears, unrecognizable, head swollen, right eye hanging over cheek. He still has the strength to say "Mamm" (mother) before collapsing bleeding to death.

In the evening, Madame Germaine JACOB, her son Paul and Madame Marianne GALES, hoping to find other survivors, follow the traces of blood left by Yves through the wood and field. They find the two bodies bathed in blood under an apple tree at the far end of the field.

They are dead.

Édouard LE BERRE, immediately alerted, comes to remove the corpses in a char-à-banc and finds, horrified, that his son, his skull shattered, has been finished off with a bayonet.Under the care of doctor DESSEVE-DAVY and nurse Antonin LE ROUX, watched over by his family, YVES L'ANTHOEN is still alive the next day. His sister Rose decides to take him to Tréguier hospital, lying on a mattress in a cart. Driven by a cart driver Alfred MORDELET, braving the patrols, she arrives in Tréguier where the bridge has been bombarded. They cross the river in a ferry, and at the hospital, Dr. ETESSE, surgeon for the occasion, extracts 10 bullets from her body: 2 in one arm, 2 in one thigh, 4 in the other, and the 2 coup de grâce in the head.

After 1 month in a coma, 6 months to regain the use of speech and walking, and a whole life in a bruised body, the miraculous man left us in 2002...

His brother Victor L'ANTHOEN died in 2003.

There are no more survivors of the massacre. But patriotic associations, the population and their families are there every year, to meditate on these acts of barbarism, linked to those at the Creac'h Maout semaphore in L'Armor-Pleubian.

Passing by, meditate too: it was a beautiful day, that day in this dreamland, when everything turned upside down: the war passed there and everything turned black."

Contribution and photo credit Jacques Grasset.

On Sunday August 6, 1944 around noon, German soldiers left L'île à Bois to go and free their comrades from the Créac'h Maout semaphore garrison, prisoners of the Resistants.On their way, the farm of Kroas-Hent, located at the top of this Carpont coast. Yves and Victor L'ANTHOEN, 17 and 22, and their friend Yves LE BERRE, 18, chat in the courtyard after lunch. All of a sudden, at around 1:30 pm, they are surrounded by around twenty soldiers who point their machine guns at them and brutalize them with rifle butts. Madame L'ANTHOEN, née Adèle LE GUEVEL, 57, alerted by Victor's cries of pain from a broken arm, comes out of the house. She insists that these innocent young men be released. But to no avail... The three of them are dragged along the road and lined up against an embankment 150 m from the farm.foutu omp! (we're screwed) Yves LE BERRE repeats. They're about to shoot us, when Arthur L'ANTHOEN appears, rushing across the fields. He begs on his knees for his children back... Only Victor is freed.An officer coming from the farm tells him, you're off to see Madame.This phrase takes on its full meaning when Victor returns to the farm to find his mother, alone, lying in the barn, an explosive bullet in her kidneys. She lies dying in his arms, while two soldiers in the yard talk and laugh.For Yves le BERRE and Yves L'ANTHOEN the ordeal continues. Going down this côte du Carpont, Jean-Baptiste kERNIVINEN, 45, who fetches his butter from his sister's as he does every Sunday, is stopped too.From everywhere, the crackling of mitraillettes can be heard as the three of them are shot. Adèle is on her deathbed, and at around 5am, a noise:Yves L'ANTHOEN appears, unrecognizable, head swollen, right eye hanging over cheek. He still has the strength to say Mamm (mother) before collapsing bleeding to death.In the evening, Madame Germaine JACOB, her son Paul and Madame Marianne GALES, hoping to find other survivors, follow the traces of blood left by Yves through the wood and field. They find the two bodies bathed in blood under an apple tree at the far end of the field.They are dead.Édouard LE BERRE, immediately alerted, comes to remove the corpses in a char-à-banc and finds, horrified, that his son, his skull shattered, has been finished off with a bayonet.Under the care of doctor DESSEVE-DAVY and nurse Antonin LE ROUX, watched over by his family, YVES L'ANTHOEN is still alive the next day. His sister Rose decides to take him to Tréguier hospital, lying on a mattress in a cart. Driven by a cart driver Alfred MORDELET, braving the patrols, she arrives in Tréguier where the bridge has been bombarded. They cross the river in a ferry, and at the hospital, Dr. ETESSE, surgeon for the occasion, extracts 10 bullets from her body: 2 in one arm, 2 in one thigh, 4 in the other, and the 2 coup de grâce in the head. After 1 month in a coma, 6 months to regain the use of speech and walking, and a whole life in a bruised body, the miraculous man left us in 2002...His brother Victor L'ANTHOEN died in 2003.There are no more survivors of the massacre. But patriotic associations, the population and their families are there every year, to meditate on these acts of barbarism, linked to those at the Creac'h Maout semaphore in L'Armor-Pleubian.Passing by, meditate too: it was a beautiful day, that day in this dreamland, when everything turned upside down: the war passed there and everything turned black.Contribution and photo credit Jacques Grasset.