Monument Executed Resistance Members Beaucoudray

Monument to 11 executed resistance fighters
After the sabotage of telephone cables on the night of 5-6 June 1944, which put the lines to and from Cherbourg, Jersey, Caen and Falaise out of service, the resistance fighters, mainly postmen and post office employees, took refuge in the village Le Bois to wait there for the approaching Americans. Unfortunately, the Americans were much delayed due to the unexpectedly great resistance from the Germans.
Because there was much talk in the village about the sabotage and the perpetrators, the resistance fighters always had to find another safe shelter. The Germans noticed the behavior of some residents and they followed suit.
On June 14, a German motorcycle patrol appears at the hiding place. But the Germans turn out to be lost and drive on again. But at 10:30 am the German soldiers, supported by the SS, arrive with their machine guns at the ready. The farm was quickly surrounded and a resistance fighter on guard was overpowered. The same was true of the men who were inside preparing the midday meal. Shots rang out.
A resistance fighter who had finished shearing outside managed to flee through the bushes surrounding the farm, which three others did.
Aware that the group was much larger than expected and that many residents of the region were involved in the affair, the Germans went hunting, shutting down the entire region and tirelessly interrogating anyone they came across deemed "suspicious".
But all the research proved fruitless. There was no other resistance fighter to be found. At nightfall, the Germans decided to transfer their prisoners to the village of Réauté. They were locked up in a stable under very heavy guard and taken to a field at Beaucoudray the next day, June 15, 1944, around 4 am. They were tied in pairs and at 4:30 am machine gun shots sounded.
The bodies of the unfortunate were found at the beginning of August during the Liberation: 4 on one side, 7 on the other, exactly where the monument now stands.

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Source

• Text: Jan van den Bos
• Photos: Jan van den Bos