Ernée Liberation Memorial
Details:
The memorial faces the road and is just south of the small parking space in a roadside clearing when approaching the memorial from Ernée. Monument In 1945, an American ambulance was attacked at the site, killing three and badly wounding a fourth. The wounded soldier, John Smith, was taken to a nearby hospital by French field workers who had witnessed the attack. He survived the incident and is honored today with this memorial which stands for all sacrifices made by American and French soldiers in the liberation of the area.
Monument Text:
Section I (L to R): Ernee, Larchamp, _____
On the evening of August 4, 1944, Ernée was encircled. The
men from the Resistance moved bravely between the two fronts, supplying
information to the American army coming from Normandy on the Mountaudin Road.
Three kilometers from the town, the enemies had positioned
cannons and were flanked by caches of ammunition.
Farmers were working in the fields. About 6:30 in the evening
one armored car with white stars appeared, making its way slowly towards Ernée.
Two explosions rang out, frightening the workers who had recognized their
liberators three of the four occupants of the vehicle were shot immediately Lieutenant
Blaha and soldiers Michel and Peroskie. After the skirmish, night fell. The
following day, at dawn, some young people from the neighborhoods went to the
place of the battle and found the armored car still smoking and the burnt
bodies of the poor soldiers. They also found a wounded soldier at the entrance
of “le chemin du Petit Val,” just opposite the monument, which was bordered by
hedges at that time. The American, exhausted and shaking with cold, his face
badly burnt, had courageously trued to bandage his right leg which was also
badly burned.
The young people from Larchamp and Ernée surrounded the
surviving hero and carried him in a wheelbarrow to the farm “La Bigottiere” one
hundred meters away where he was looked after before he was taken to the
hospital at Ernée.
The Germans departed during the night, leaving the town
opened to the progressing Patton’s army.
John Smith, the courageous soldier, was taken to the hospital
at Laval the same day, across the German lines, in an ambulance belonging to a person
from Ernée, accompanied by another man and a young woman from the same town.
The courage and composure of this ambulance man and his
companions allowed John Smith to return to his family in the United States in
1945 where he died in 1954, probably from the effects of his wounds.
This monument, erected on 4th July 1948
(Independence Day) at the exact place where the American armored car was
attacked, pays tribute to the Resistance fighters of our town and to the
American soldiers who paid with their life for the liberation of Larchamp and Ernée.
Plaque II:
Cette plaque fut inaugurée le 8
Mai 2003 pour honorer la mémoire des résistants d’Ernée en présence de leurs familles.
1940: Apres l’armistice du 22
juin, la guerre est officiellement terminée pour notre pays, mais dans la
France occupée et humiliée, se mettent en place petit a pâtit, des réseaux de résistance,
alors que la population fortement perturbée par les événements de mai et juin
doit se plier aux lois de l’occupation allemande. C’est pour gêner ces
occupants dans tous les domaines possibles que vont œuvrer les résistants.
A Ernée, le garagiste LE DONNE,
G.DELHOMMEL, alors employé aux Eaux et Forêts, le maçon R. BOURSIER, R. JUSTIN,
agent du téléphone aux P.T.T. avec l’étudiant H. HUNAULT et phasleurs autres volontaires
vont rapidement créer un groupe de résistance. LE DONNE en sera d’abord le chef
avec DELHOMMEL comme adjoint. René JUSTIN prendra la lite du groupe en 1942.
Leurs actions: saboteur des lignes téléphoniques, combler la nuit les tranchées
creusées le jour par les allemands, accueillir des résistants de passage,
cacher des prisonniers évades qu’il faut aussi nourrir par temps de
restrictions, récupérer les aviateurs anglais et américains, qui seront, tous
sans exception, sauves par le réseau de résistance Ernee-Chailland. Bientôt de
jeunes Ernéens réfractaires au STO: M. BOULANGER, F. LAMBERT, R. LAUNAY et M.
HUGNET évade d’Allemagne, viendront mettre au service du groupe constitue,
l’ardeur de leurs jeunes années.
Le groupe s’organise plus
officiellement en février 1944 et en mai, huit de ses membres se mettent sous
l’autorité des résistants de Fougères. Le 2 juin, divises en deux équipes, ils
sont envoyés en mission: les quatre jeunes doivent exécuter un vol de voiture a
la Kommandantur de Fougères le 4 juin à 23h. Le coup de main tourne mal,
voulant sauver leur chef blesse par la patrouille allemande arrivée plus tôt
que prévu, tous les cinq sont arrêtés, emprisonnes dans les geôles Jacques
Cartier a Rennes. Atrocement tortures, ils se tairont. Et, le 23 juin au petit
matin, BOULANGER, HUGNET, LAMBERT, LAUNAY seront fusilles par les allemands
avec leur chef fougerais, au Polygone, en chantant la Marseillaise.
BOURSIER, BUSSON, DELHOMMEL, avec
quelques autres sont, eux envoyés au lieu-dit la Foret Noire a Larchamp, pour récupérer
et évacuer un parachutage d’armes. Mais, la présence de ce groupe intrigue et inquiète
le voisinage et les bavardages vont bon train, qui parviendront jusqu’aux
oreilles de la Milice. C’est elle qui, le 4 juin, viendra attaque le campement:
il est 18h30 lorsque les assaillants arrivent; en un quart d’heure le petit
groupe est neutralisé: BOURSIER mortellement atteint est achevé par un
milicien, BUSSON grièvement blesse est charge sur les épaules de DELHOMMEL et
tous les 2 emmenés à Rennes au local de la Milice ou dès le lendemain ils
seront brutalement interroges et tortures. DELHOMMEL sera interne dans un hôpital
d’aliénées. BUSSON sera hospitalisé. C’est pendant cette détention que
DELHOMMEL accomplira avec ses compagnons un autre acte héroïque : l’aviation
anglaise bombarda l’hôpital pour y mettre le feu : au lieu de profiter de l’occasion
pour essayer de fuir, ils se précipitèrent pour sauver du brasier, les
malheureuses folles dont certaines broutaient vives. Le 3 août commence la libération
de Rennes, a sa grande surprise, DELHOMMEL, qui attendait à Jacques Cartier, de
passer en Cour Martiale, vit ce jour s’ouvrir la porte de sa cellule : il sera
libre après 60 jours de détention. Dès le lendemain, il retrouvera a l’hôpital
Saint Louis, son compagnon BUSSON : tous les deux avaient eu la chance de s’en
tirer.
Pendant ce temps a Ernée, R.
JUSTIN continue, avec son groupe, le travail commence. A la libération, ils
joueront un rôle important : traversant des lignes allemandes, ils convaincront
de vive-voix les Américains arrives le 3 aout a Fougerolles du Plessis, de l’inutile
de bombarder Ernée que fut ainsi épargnée. Le 5 août, après les tragiques événements
du 4, ils reviennent avec les libérateurs qu’ils accompagneront même jusqu’à
Mayenne.
La page se refermait sur l’histoire
de la résistance ernéene.
This plaque was inaugurated on the 8th of May
2003 in order to commemorate the Ernee Resistance in the presence of their
families.
IN HONOR OF THE ERNEE RESISTANCE
1940: The armistice of June 22nd marked the
official end of the war, but in our newly occupied and humiliated country,
shocked by recent events and suffering under oppressive new laws, small groups
of resistance fighters banded together. The disruption of German activity was
their stated aim.
In Ernee, mechanic LE DONNE, Water and Forest service worker
G. DEL HOMMEL, stonemason R. BOURSIER, P.T.T. telephone operator R. JUSTIN and
his student colleague H.HUNAULT, as well as a few other volunteers quickly
established their own local cell. LE DONNE originally held the reins with
DELHOMMEL as his second-in-command until RENE JUSTIN took over in 1942. They
sabotaged telephone lines, filled in freshly dug German trenches, hid and cared
for passing Resistance members, rescued Allied personnel they had to feed
despite rationing laws and evacuated all of them by the Ernee-Chailland route.
Soon young Erneens escaping Germany’s labor camps added their youthful ardor to
the group’s efforts. Among them were M. BOULANGER, F. LAMBERT, R. LAUNAY, and
M. HUGNET.
The group re-organized itself in February of 1944, sending
eight of its members to the Fougeres resistance in May. On June 2nd,
they were sent in teams of four to steal cars from the Kommandanture of
Fougeres on May 4th at 2300. Their mission went south when a patrol
showed up early, injuring their leader and blowing their cover. Trying to save
their wounded comrade, one group was arrested and brutally tortured in the
Jacques Cartier prison in Rennes. No one said a word. At dawn on June 23rd,
BOULANGER, HUGNET, LAMBERT, LAUNAY, and their Fougerais leader were executed by
a German firing squad at the Polygone. They died singing the Marseillaise.
BOURSIER, BUSSON, DELHOMMEL, and a few others were sent to
the “Black Forest” near Larchamp in order to recover a weapons drop. However,
the presence of this new band of men sparked the locals’ curiosity, whose
gossip reached the ears of the Militia. They attacked their encampment on June
4th at 1830. The firefight was over in less than 15 minutes. The
fatally wounded BOURSIER was finished off and DELHOMMEL carried the less
gravely shot BUSSON to the Militia’s barracks in Rennes where they were also
brutally tortured. DELHOMMEL was subsequently locked up in an asylum and BUSSON
hospitalized for his wounds. During an Allied bombing run on the hospital,
DELHOMMEL helped evacuate the rest of the patients, some burning alive. The
liberation of Rennes started on August 3rd and DELHOMMEL, then
imprisoned in Jacques Cartier, found his cell door opened by Allied troops instead
of captors leading him to a Court-Martial, 60 days after his capture. He would
be reunited with BUSSON at the Saint Louis hospital the next day.
Meanwhile, R. JUSTIN and his organization pursued their self-appointed
mission. During the liberation, they passed through German lines to convince
the Americans, who had arrived on June 3rd at Fougerolles du
Plessis, not to bomb Ernee, thereby sparing the area. On the 5th,
they joined the Americans in the liberation of their region all the way to
Mayenne.
The Ernee Resistance’s history ended shortly thereafter.
LET US NOT FORGET THESE HEROES.
Commemorates:
People:
Units:
85th Cavalry Recon Squadron, 5th Armored Division
United States Army
Wars:
WWII
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