Search

Monument des fusillés

Text of explanatory panel:

A page in the history of the French Resistance or "How a network dies ..." On June 15, 1944, on the edge of a bocage grassland, on the territory of the small commune of Beaucoudray, in the cool dawn of one of the longest days of the year, eleven members of the PTT de Saint Lô network fell to German bullets. Thus came to a tragic end, the long-prepared action implemented on the night of June 5-6, 1944 as part of the "Plan Violet" of systematic sabotage of German telephone installations.... Action that should have continued behind enemy lines, but the lack of resources both in men and above all in equipment was to make it impossible.

Created in Saint- Lô at the end of 1940 by Marcel BICHER, the action of the group of resistance fighters recruited more specifically from among postal workers initially consisted of informing the allies about the consistency of the German defense network (lookout post, batteries of D.C.A, troop movements) and then sabotaging and intervening behind German lines during the breakthrough of the front. A reinforcement of paratroopers was to enable such concerted action.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited reinforcements from the Special Air Service never arrived: entangled in the Cotentin marshes, the Allies were quickly blocked by heavy German resistance. The letter carriers, isolated in the farmhouse in the village of Le Bois where they had taken refuge after cutting the main German cables on the evening of June 5, were reduced to waiting. The front line breakthrough was not happening .... Chatter, indiscretions and perhaps inattentiveness enabled the group of German non-combatants staying in the nearby village of La Réauté to track down some young men who were far from behaving like villagers. At dawn on June 14, a German motorized patrol penetrated to the farm where the men of the maquis were spending the night. There was no reaction. A mistake...lost men...false... at 10:30 a.m. the non-combatants supported by the SS arrived in force with machine guns in battery. The farm was quickly surrounded. One maquisard, Raymond ROBIN, who was standing guard, was surprised and overpowered. So were the 8 men inside, preparing the midday meal. Outside, shots rang out. Alfred GUY, a member of the Resistance, fell, shot in the thigh. Ernest PRUVOST the national leader, who was finishing shaving outside, managed to blend into the abundant vegetation then surrounding the farm.

The same was true of three others: BICHER, DESCHAMPS, RAOULT... René CROUZEAU summoned to raise his arms, managed with his colt to shoot down his adversary, but had to surrender in his turn. He had the painful privilege of being considered the leader. After lengthy questioning and attempts to save his men, CROUZEAU declared very clearly to those who questioned him "We are against you".

Mme LEBLOND who, accompanied by her son, had the onerous task of guarding the outskirts of the farm, was also questioned at length, along with her son, then aged 11. By some unexpected grace, they escaped execution. Aware that the group was much larger than expected, and that many locals were involved in the affair, the Germans went on the hunt, cordoning off the entire region, relentlessly interrogating anyone they came across considered "suspicious". It was in this way that Alphonse FILLATRE and his wife, accompanied by a young relative, warned in extremis by a local boy, Bernard LALLEMAN, managed to deceive the Nazi vigilance and that of the dogs launched in their search.

But all the searches proved fruitless. No further resistance fighters were to be found. But wasn't the network being reconstituted? Wouldn't the parachutists melt from the sky to save the Resistance fighters? It had to be done. After a hard day's work, during which the Allied air force had been particularly active, the Germans decided at nightfall to transfer their prisoners to the village of La Réuté. They were locked up in a stable under very vigilant guard.

June 15, 4 a.m., a truck starts up suddenly... Guttural orders... A few minutes later, a long burst of machine-gun fire as dawn breaks... Eleven men ceased to exist. The bodies of the unfortunate men were found at liberation in early August: 4 on one side and 7 on the other, on the exact spot where the monument now stands. They were tied in pairs. One of them bore the FFI (Force Françaises de l'Intérieur) armband. This military distinction proved illusory, for although the Man adhered to this Armée called "des Ombres",he would never be respected by the German.

Every year, on the first Sunday after June 15, a crowd, always large, attends the commemorative ceremony. Perhaps to illustrate the poet's phrase "...where I die, the Fatherland is reborn."

Location for : Listing Title