The Allied landing

I finished all my commissions, and the book on Du Guesclin appeared in bookstores, under a rain of bombs, two days before the Allied landing, on June 6, 1944. What extraordinary news that was!

The firing on the German army's locomotives camouflaged near the presbytery in St-Melaine made us appreciate the precision of the RAF gunners! Five or six weeks later, the German troops went by on their way to Paris, destroying all the bridges behind them. One last, haggard German soldier went by with his boots stuffed with grenades.

Then a US army jeep drove up and parked under the trees halfway between St Melaine and Châteaubourg. I hurried over to help them with information. My English was very basic, but luckily the officer spoke German. I was able to tell him his position and describe the German retreat. He showed me photos of his sheet-metal poultry barn, big enough to raise 5, chickens, and of his wife, and his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The good rector invited him into the presbytery for a glass of his best wine to celebrate the Liberation. Columns of trucks filled with soldiers and equipment were already arriving at a good clip. I went back to Rennes, where my father was busy helping to collect the bodies of dead American and German soldiers. He spoke English and helped to identify them. North of the city, one of the big German guns had not been reconnoitred and surrounded in time. The German soldiers, who had been sunbathing, had time to get into position. Several tanks and half-tracks were incinerated, and the church and the town lay in ruins. The horror and stupidity of war, one last time!