D-Day Battles in the Shadows

little`known story of the French Resistance's battle to stop a German

I vision reaching `` division reaching landing beaches in

Normandy. History, like the Atlantic waves has

washed the Normandy sand. Just before dawn, we're on our way over

to the coast of France... The story of D`Day, the largest ever seaborne

landings. The story of lives lost and honour earned. But the D`Day

story takes us beyond the landing beaches to a landscape far to the

south, where French civilians faced a heavily armed enemy and paid the

price. As the Allies clawed their way ashore, French towns and

villages were rallying to meet German reinforcements, which might

just turn the tide. They showed cold courage. They had no illusions about

the risks they were taking. There was not only a war being fought in

Normandy, in summer 1944, there was also the war the French Resistance

against the German occupier. The call to arms, a nation, which

had suffered four years of occupation, stirred into action by

the coded messages from London. In Normandy, a storm had broken,

carrying news of liberation across France. 400 miles to the south, one

of Germany's most powerful military units was about to respond.

TRANSLATION: The first time we saw Das Reich was on the day the

resistance started. They were a real threat. We were amateurs and they

were professionals. They were armed to the teeth and had tanks and

armoured vehicles. Das Reich's service in Russia had

won it a brutal reputation. Now, its 20,000 men, rolled out of bases near

Toulouse on a two`pronged mission. After the larnedings, das ``

landings, Das Reich gets the order from the highest authority in the

west, from the supreme commoneder, to move towards the Normandy front.

On its way, it should also cleanse, under quotation marks, the area that

is "infested by bandits". The orders from the commander, Heinz

Lammerding, were brutally clear. He suggests that in case of the troops

should be attacked, for each German wounded soldier, three French

hostages should be killed. In the case of a German soldier being

killed, ten hostages should be killed. The resistance teams were

fully aware of Das Reich's reputation, but their orders were

also very clear ` to delay any reinforcements, which might threaten

the landings. They launched their first attacks on the rail network. I

think that was probably the single most significant and vital move of

all. The attack on the railway lines, the first thing was to

destroy the rolling stock and to sabotage,if you like, the

locomotives and to tear up and destroy the railway tracks all the

way through France. TRANSLATION: We were sent to blow up

the railway lines. We travelled at night, using quiet roads, so it took

quite a while to get there. When we arrived, we found local guards had

been posted to protect the line and warn the authorities.

We told them what we were going to do and because they were from that

area, they headed home straight away. They didn't want any trouble.

So we blew the explosives. We waited a bit longer to check the damage,

then left before first light. The plan was already working, tanks

are not designed for long journeys. Now they and the truck loads of

infantry, would have to lumber north, along country roads. Marcel

recalls a narrow escape as he and a friend moved weapons to his

resistance group. TRANSLATION: We had hidden the guns

in a deserted area south of the town. We took the weapons out of the

barn, loaded them onto the fan and took to the road. `` van. We were

horrified to find ourselves in the middle of the Das Reich convoy,

which was heading for the landing beaches. Our driver played it cool

and positioned the van between two tanks. We waved to the Germans and

called out to them in a friendly way. They did the same. But we were

stuck in the convoy for a while, because the main road had been

blocked and they had to avoid the barricades. The detour was only a

couple of kilometres, but to us, it felt like a century.

Every mile that the Das Reich division travelled north towards

Normandy took them closer to the resistance groups, aiming to delay

their progress. When you look at this landscape, you can see the

advantage those groups had, narrow roads, steep valleys and thick

forests ` perfect, in fact, for guerrilla warfare.

Alongside them, were the men and women of the Special Operations

Executive, secret agents dropped in dead of night from their base in

Bedfordshire. This is the film they made after the war. Let's check you

over. Have you anything in your pockets? Don't think so. O h. French

or British? Thank you very much. We were driven to the plane in the

dark. We were carried into the plane by the crew and then later on it

took off. We didn't see anything at all.

They gave you your parachute and your weapon, your pistol and your

smock. Below, scattered across farmland, the resistance waited with

their torches. They would have little time to move agents and

supply containers to safety. The SOE teams were three people. There was

the chief, would was in charge of the operation. There was the

sabotage expert. These were usually two men. And the third was very

often a woman. She was the communications wireless operator.

With every ambush and every bridge blowing and every fuel dump

destroyed, every minute built up, every minute counted. The incredible

thought that literally every minute added to the delay. This created a

tremendous frustration and loss of morale in the German forces.

TRANSLATION: The SOE were really important. My mother used to visit

my father in the camp. She came back to `` back to tell us there would be

a parachute drop that night. It was vital because that's how they got

their weapons and other supplies. When my father took over the unit,

they had no weapons. TRANSLATION: The men hid all the

canisters. There were a lot of them. We had a big house and garden. Our

neighbours hid fuel supplies there, among our trees, in a nearby house,

in our cellars. Looking back, I realise how risky it was.

But the secret agents faced another challenge, a surge of patriotism was

sweeping the region and they were desperate to go beyond their orders

and seize territory from the occupiers. The museum in the quiet

hillside town reflects an uprising which was to have horrific

consequences. I think it was something like 1200 forces, and the

resistance overcame them. It was obviously a very powerful unit. And

a highly successful one, but having done that, they thought they'd won

the day and they failed to post lookouts, so they didn't know anyone

was coming. A failure which allowed the troops

of Das Reich to roll up this road into the town without opposition.

Alongside the road today and you have to look hard to find it, is

this memorial to one of the worst day's in the town's history, a

massacre of civilians which served as a warning of what was to come.

TRANSLATION: As the day went on, there was more and more noise, as

the tanks moved in. When they came into town, people tried to run away,

but they killed them. The general's orders were put into effect, 120 men

were condemned to death by hanging. On the bridge where the troops began

their grim tank, I men Jacques and his friend, now 100. Around us, the

lampposts and balconies, which became sights of execution.

TRANSLATION: I was one of the last people to be arrested at 1. 1. 30pm.

They'd been rounding people up since 6am, young people, older people. I

was married. I had a ten`month`old child. We were taken to the arms

factory. I gave them my papers and at that moment, a soldier arrived

and in the confusion, I managed to disappear in the crowd. We were

saved. It was a miracle. TRANSLATION: We saw them pass by,

groups of ten people. It was terrible to see one of your friends

chosen. You knew they were going to be hanged. It could have been a

family member or a close friend. It was terrible.

Reich called a halt. One of the officers is thought to have sketched

this scene on the main street. The first ten were hanged from balconies

and they went to get the next group. Four of them were on the bridge,

including a rugby player, a tough guy. When they went to hang him he

kicked out at the nearest SS man, knocking him over. He jumped over a

wall into the river and they killed him with Dalits and grenades. ``

bullets. Nowadays, when I see kids whose

parents I know were hanged, I can see their parents in them and it is

very hard. When I'm on my own I can see those ropes hanging down.

like a shock wave through the resistance movement, but far from

dead herring the attacks it stiffened their resolve to fight on.

`` ditto `` deterring. 34 miles north, in the rolling

countryside, lies this tiny village. In June 1944, young men and sued the

call to arms `` replied to the call to arms and became heroes. Today,

their graves had tended with honour in the hilltop cemetery. 25`year`old

Rene had been a pilot. He was leading a resistance group. They are

hit and run tactics mirrored the campaign throughout this region. We

liberated this town. We were told the Germans were on their way. There

were only a dozen of them. We had practically no weapons but we did

have a bazooka. The first one missed the convoy but the second destroyed

two trucks. We fought all day until the Germans left.

There was a group of eight or nine people. We would lie down along the

road at night, the machine gunner, the grenades... When you hear the

first motorbike you look for the trucks. As soon as they fire back

you would run away because you will not fight against the veterans.

Family members faced a constant risk of informers or night`time raids by

the Gestapo. It was full, `` it was terrifying, the Germans were coming,

we were terrified they would torture us. We all left to hide in the

woods. They wrecked our house looking for us. It was horrible, but

the hardest part was the children. You do worry when the children are

asleep next door and you don't know what's going to happen. As a

teenager, this woman carried messages between members of the

group. Soon after the Normandy landings, I was taking a message to

a village. It was some way off and whilst I was pedalling I became

convinced somebody was following me. I got really frightened. I thought I

was in trouble, so as I coasted downhill I took the little tube of

paper from inside the handlebars of my bike and I swallowed it. When I

met the contact I had to apologise and tell him I had eaten the secret

message. The German troops were everywhere

and they came at us in a clean`up operation. We could hear them firing

and thought someone else was in trouble, but they were after us and

they attacked around 9pm when it was still daylight. They were better

equipped and better armed. Two of us used a bazooka to stop the tanks.

They got shots off before we destroy them. Even now my stomach tightens

when I talk about it. We were fighting into the night but we had

lost ten men out of 50. By now, the Das Reich division had faced four

days of constant attacks. 60% of the tanks had broken down and the

anti`terrorist occupation had spread troops across hundreds of miles.

With Allied troops fighting onshore in Normandy, the darkest chapter in

the story of Das Reich's journey north was about to unfold. It began

with a chance encounter between a German officer who was travelling

down that road and a group of men returning to their base after

blowing up a bridge. The major was a popular battalion commander. He was

never seen again. His disappearance in fury to his

fellow officers and led one SS unit to an unsuspecting community nearly

30 miles to the west. Until June ten, 1944, this was an unknown

country town. At two p.m., and SS Major led his men at the Main

Street. They rounded up the 600 inhabitants. Men were taken to

garages and Warnes, woman and children to the church. `` barns. We

were sitting on the straw in the barn because it was so hot that day.

No shots had been fired. There was no sign of what was to come. It was

quiet. One soldier told us to stand up. There was an explosion outside

and the shooting started. The closest men got hit first. Then I

got hit in the leg. I fell over. I was protected by the other bodies.

People fell on top of each other. I could smell blood and dust. After,

they covered us with straw and anything else that would burn and

they set fire to us. A lot of men were burned alive but before the

flames reached me I escaped from underneath the bodies and I got

away. 642 people were massacred. 400 of

them were women and children. My dad told me my mother and sisters had

died in the church. That was the saddest moment, not what I went

through. The saddest thing was when I was told my mother and sisters had

disappeared like that and nothing was left of them.

The tone had no connection with the resistance. In the decades since the

massacre, it has become clear that this was a deliberate act of

revenge. Being fully indoctrinated with Nathalie ideology `` Nazi

ideology, they proceed to the most dramatic measures. In many

instances, when they killed women and children, it was not to that

extent that an entire village is wiped out. The village marked a

turning point in this story. A shocked resistance movement ended

all major attacks and as right was soon `` Das Reich was soon out of

the region. Among the casualties was Adolph Deichmann. Behind them, the

tide of liberation swept through towns and cities. Communities which

still celebrate the courage of those which faced Das Reich, but at a

terrible cost... Over 2000 lives were lost, many of them just in the

wrong place at the wrong time. Das Reich lost less than 50 men.

Militarily it was not worth it. Politically, this was necessary to

show that there was a different France, not only the France that

waits until the end of the war, there is a France that actively

fights the German occupiers. By the time the Das Reich division trickled

into combat, it was one week late. Behind them, feel of damage and

broken down tanks. `` a trail of damage. It reminded them of the

pride that still runs deep along the roads to Normandy.

I had never seen a dead person and then suddenly you would see guys you

had spoken to one hour earlier at dead on the floor. That leaves a

sky. I see it now like it was yesterday. `` that leaves a mark. We

did what we had to do. It was our duty and I'm very proud of it. We

are ordinary people, simple folk, that is why we have not right about

the things we did. We kept them in our hearts. I've kept the French

flag we carried and when the time comes I hope that flag can be buried

with me. That is all I ask. We have just taken a wicket at the

Test match but it remains cloudy at Lord's. There are some sharp showers

across southern counties, but most of us having a dry end to the day.

Perhaps a touch on the cold side. " Dominate overnight. `` the cloud