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The Cabertat maquis

Détail

  • Nom
    The Cabertat maquis
  • Lieu
    VAÏSSAC
  • Contribution
    Raphaël Mégard
  • ID
    3007.3131

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Historic Places
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis
Stele text:
In April 1943, the Resistance organized at the farm of Ombrailsat the Ricard family home. The first arms airdrop in Tarn-et-Garonne took place there on the night of August 19-20, 1943.
A camp for numerous refractory members of the S.T.O. was then established there, but was spotted by the occupying forces and attacked on June 20, 1944.
After several hours of harassment, the resistance fighters scatter and the enemy retaliates by torturingand shooting six Corps franc men and incendiating the farmswhere the Penchenat family is annihilated with a flamethrower.
By early July, the reconstituted groups are once again operational. In particular, they take part in the combat du Rond in Montauban (August 19, 1944) and the Vosges campaign (October 1944-January 1945)...

The bloody events of summer 44:

July 17, 1944-L'attaque des Brunis
On July 17, 1944, following a repressive operation led by the Gestapo de Montauban with the complicity of the Milice, several arrests were made in the Négrepelisse-Montricoux sector. Henri Borderie and André Castel at Les Ombrails commune de Negrepelisse, André Jouany, his brother Henri, Pierre Bonhomme, Pierre Feuillée, André Huguet, Camille Mazard, the Lespinet brothers. Hugues and Lucien, René Cournut, Eugène Fournier and Michel Melamed in Montricoux.

the convoy, taking the 13 hostages to Montauban, is attacked en route at a place called   Les Brunis by elements of the groupe Fantôme who have been ordered to intercept it. The group consists of just seven men: Georges Wrobel (Bob),André Bauer (Pépé). Marcel Loupiac (Le Cuistat), Pierre Guisti(Jim), Angelo Follano (Mistinguet), Maurice Dougé (Rigoulat) and Georges Jacquot (Marsouin), who takes command. When the convoy arrives, Marsouin throws a Gammon grenade at the hood of the first truck, which, blown by the explosion, swerves some fifteen meters before coming to a halt in the ditch. The convoy stopped, and the Germans and militiamen, initially stunned by the blast, came to their senses. A fierce and unequal struggle ensues.

Taking advantage of the situation, several prisoners try to escape: René Courmut (Cavaillé) and Eugène Fournier (Gégène) will run away towards the river. Unfortunately, Pierre Bonhommeand Pierre Feuillée, won't be so lucky, being Immediately shot downin turn jumping from the truck.
Faced with numerical superiority and the absence of the hoped-for reinforcements, the maquisards stumble off in the direction of the railroad line. Marcel Loupiacis killed before they get there, André Bauer is shot dead in the middle of the track and Georges Wrobel owes his salvation to the machine-gun magazine he carries on his chest. Maurice Daugé pierced through and through by a bullet manages to escape Despite the heroism of the Corps Franc men, the toll is heavy on the Resistance side: four are deplored dead, includingPierre feuillée, 30, married, father of two: Pierre Bonhomme, 33, also married, father of a little boy, André Bauer, 23 Jewish refugee of Alsatian origin and Marcel Loupiac, 45, married father of a family.

July 24 the appalling sentence.
Arrived in Montauban, the prisoners are first deposited at the headquarters of the Feldgendarmerie, at the Hotel du Commerce. They are lined up face down against the wall, then shackled. After undergoing an initial interrogation and a tight search, they are stripped of their papers and money before being transferred to the former cavalry quarters at the Doumerc barracks
Starting the next day, the prisoners undergo muscledinterrogations .

Henri Borderie and Camille Mazard would be released within the week.
For the others, the sentence was without appeal! On the night of July 23-24, after undergoing a final interrogation, the prisoners were loaded into vehicles and driven to Place du Maréchal Pétain, opposite the prefecture, to undergo their ordeal. Four of them, André Huguet, 49, from Montricoux, married, father of two, Henry Jouany. 38 years old. Montricoux, married, father of a little boy, André Castel, 37, from Negrepelisse, married and Michel Melamed, 39 from Caussade, will hang back to back from the acacia trees lining the square.

Seeing the sinister preparations, Hugues Lespinet leaps up, hands tied behind his back, into the darkness, he flees down the rue de la poste. It was probably before he got there that he was hit by a machine-gun burst. He was found the next day in a garden on rue des Doreurs, lying in a pool of blood. Although shot several times, he found the strength to tell Prefect Maurice Vincent about the tragic episode of the previous night, confirming that he had escaped when his comrades were being hanged. Transported to hospital and despite the care he received, including two successive blood transfusions, poor Hugues Lespinet would, sadly, not survive his injuries. He passed away on the evening of July 24, aged 33, married with two children.


Montech - July 26, 1944-At the height of barbarism
While in Montauban, the bodies of the unfortunate hanged men were being buried, another, atrocious drama was being plotted on the premises of the Gestapo. Indeed, after the dramatic events of the night of July 23-24, there is still no news of the last two hostages, André Jouany(La Goupille) el Lucien Lespinet (Lucas), arrested on July 17 in their village of Montricoux. Did they manage to evade their executioners on the fateful night when their companions in misfortune were hanged? Were they recaptured?

A small glimmer of hope that they might reappear safe and sound still lingers in their already cruelly bereaved families. But reality proved far more terrible still.
On the evening of July 26, 1944, the two prisoners were taken to a place called "Châteauroux", on the edge of the Montech forest. Chained, back to back, they were lowered into a pit previously dug by German soldiers. A member of the Gestapo fired a pistol at them two or three times. One of them was hit, dragging the other down with him. The Germans fill in the pit.
It was only a month later, after the Germans had left, that the atrocious ordeal of the two hostages from Montricoux was revealed, by witnesses, to the Montech authorities. The examination carried out during the exhumation of the unfortunate bodies by docteur Parot, in the presence of the Montech gendarmes, would reveal that they were most likely alive when buried. What's more, André Jouany, who wore an abundance of hair, was discovered completely bald, a clear sign of the torture inflicted by his executioners. Emotions ran high in Montech, but even more so in Montricoux, where a large crowd turned out to attend their funerals.

-André Jouany was 35, married and the father of a little boy,
-Lucien Lespinetwas 27, also married and the father of two children.

A few meters from the site of their ordeal, by the roadside, a stele commemorates their sacrifice and every year on the anniversary date, a ceremony is held to pay tribute to them.


August 7, 1944- The Albias skirmish
While a group of maquisards from the first section of Corps Franc Dumas, commanded by Georges Jacquot (Marsouin) were guarding the main road, during a requisition mission in Albias, a German column appeared from the direction of Caussade. A confrontation is inevitable. (Gégène) immediately opens fire with his machine gun, while his comrades throw their grenades at the trucks and open fire in turn. The first truck ends its run against a plane tree, the others stop. The German soldiers jump out of the vehicles and deploy, firing back. Unfortunately, Gégène is hit and collapses behind his machine-gun, which has suddenly gone silent. It is impossible to get close to him without risking being hit by enemy projectiles

Marsouin gives the order to withdraw. The maquisards abandoning their trucks stall. However, Claude Bourlier(Cri-cri) offers to go and retrieve poor Fournier, Jacquot interposes. the Germans are advancing on all sides. It's too dangerous to tender anything to help him. However, Cri-cri doesn't listen to his loved one's advice, and goes to the wounded man, accompanied by Raymond Droutman (Fine Oseille). They manage to drag him to a nearby house, aided by the local owners. They camouflage him as best they can. The Germans approach, and the owner gives Cri-cri some civilian clothes, so he hastily dresses and climbs up to the attic, from where he throws a grenade. Some Feldgendarmes surge shouting Terrorists Terrorists , Fine Oseille and the inhabitants of the house, raise their arms, they manage to flee while the Germans climb upstairs in pursuit of Cri-cri. Cri-cri was immediately taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the wounded man was discovered and suffered the same fate. Both are taken away. Miserac Dominique requested by the Germans, who died at the wheel of his vehicle.

Contribution and photo credit: Raphaël Mégard
 
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis.
Lieux Historiques
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis.
Lieux Historiques
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis.
Lieux Historiques
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis.
Lieux Historiques
The Cabertat maquis
The Cabertat maquis.
Lieux Historiques

The Cabertat maquis

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