Blood in the Snow, Blood on the Grass (33 page)

He did, however, propose a counter-deal. Claiming that Simone was the mistress of Secretary of the Interior Darnand, he ordered them to persuade Darnand to effect the release of a man arrested by the Gestapo on 2 June, in return for which he would send Simone back to her husband. The dismayed negotiators could not believe that he wished to introduce the Gestapo into the already problematical power struggle in which the hostages on both sides were enmeshed. ‘François’ dismissed the soaked negotiators with the threat that they were Milice stooges who would be hanged if he set eyes on them again. He then dictated a letter to Darnand in which he declared that any harm to the hostages would result in Simone being killed, cut up in small pieces and posted back to him in several parcels.

On 18 June, the only good news was that Bout de l’An had heeded Archbishop Lefebvre’s appeal from the pulpit and given permission for the hostages to be overseen by the Red Cross. The bad news was that he had also appointed Lécussan sub-prefect in St-Amand, with instructions to bring order back to the rebellious town.
⁴

It was in the morning of 19 June that the weary negotiating team set off yet again for another fruitless meeting with ‘Roger’, the current whereabouts of ‘François’ being unknown. The following day, they again drove into the Creuse, talking their way through roadblocks, some manned by the Maquis and others by the Milice, where Delalande’s function in the sub-prefecture established their bona fides. The whole country was now effectively in a state of civil war. On 21 June at 1100hrs they missed a rendezvous near Sardent due to the roads being blocked by flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. Desperate pleas to ‘Roger’ finally bore fruit: at 1700hrs, they met the elusive Maquis overlord himself at Pontarion. To their surprise, ‘François’ agreed to Bout de l’An’s latest offer: to exchange the hostages in Vichy and the
maquisards
’ wives in return for the women held hostage in the Creuse.

The return of the haggard negotiating team to St-Amand was a nightmare journey. Delalande dared not switch on his headlights for fear of ambush by one side or the other and drove at a snail’s pace along unfamiliar roads in the gloom, at one point missing by minutes an ambush set by Lalonnier’s men, who had heard that the car was carrying Milice spies. Reporting back to the sub-prefecture in St-Amand on the morning of 22 June, they found all the personnel terrified by Lécussan’s speech of the previous day, during which he threatened them with a loaded revolver and said, ‘I have been sent here as a
Gauleiter
. I shall certainly burn down the whole town, if the order is given. I can shoot whom I want, when I want. I demand your complete submission to my authority.’
⁵

In comparison with that, Bout de l’An sounded sane when they relayed to him by phone the terms of the offer by ‘François’. However, he said that he could not return the wives because the rail connections between Vichy and St-Amand had been cut by sabotage. It would thus be necessary to backtrack to the previous deal. Delalande and the others were dumbstruck and horrified to hear Lécussan add that if Simone was not released that very night, he would begin reprisals at dawn. Exhausted and demoralised, they set off yet again into the Creuse and tracked down ‘Roger’. He, however, had no idea where ‘François’ now was.

While hunting for him, ‘Roger’ bumped into van Gaver and Blanchard entirely by chance. They were on their way to find ‘François’, who had never bothered to inform them of the negotiations with Delalande. ‘Roger’ thus brought back to Pontarion not ‘François’ but the two St-Amandais, who were horrified to hear of the prolonged negotiations over the hostages, for which the final deadline was to run out so soon. They all agreed that there was no time to waste. If their families were not to suffer, the exchange was a matter of urgency. All five were about to leave for the Château de Mérignat when ‘Roger’ showed up again and told them that ‘François’ now refused to let the exchange of hostages go ahead.

Another hour was wasted while van Gaver and Blanchard were driven by ‘Roger’ to argue their case with ‘François’, who heard them out, still unmoved by the thought of St-Amand being razed to the ground, but eventually told them disdainfully to do whatever they liked with their female hostages. It was by then too late for the exchange to take place that evening, so a handover was agreed for the following morning.

Delalande had no way of knowing that German military units had moved into St-Amand, ready to effect the reprisals the following morning. This was to prove the decisive moment in the drama because there was no room in his vehicle for the male hostages, even though van Gaver wanted to release them with the women, despite Bout de l’An not including them in the deal.

After an uneasy night, Delalande’s team was up at 0530hrs, with two and a half hours to go before Lécussan’s deadline. At 0730hrs Delalande managed to wake up a sleepy village postmaster whose telephone was still working and got through to Lécussan. For once – perhaps he had not yet started drinking – the self-styled
Gauleiter
of St-Amand sounded quite rational. On being told that the women had been handed over to Delalande and would be back in St-Amand by early afternoon, he stood down the German troops, who returned to base, and agreed to have the hostages brought back from Vichy.

At 1000hrs Delalande was waiting at a crossroads when one of Blanchard’s men drove up with Simone and four of the ‘little sluts’, all blindfolded so that they could not lead anyone back to the château where they had been held. The two other girls had opted to stay with the Maquis. In one case, this was because the girl was afraid to return and face the wrath of her father for sleeping with a
milicien.
The other girl’s motive remains unknown, but since she was just referred to as
la Juive –
the
Jewish girl – she was a strange person to find consorting with the anti-Semitic Milice. Simone promised to confirm the two other girls had stayed behind of their own accord, so that there could be no going back on the deal when they arrived in St-Amand.

Delalande made her and the four girls promise on their honour not to divulge anything about their captivity. Simone installed herself beside him on the front bench seat, with the four girls in the rear, and off they set. A stop en route had to be made for one of the girls who was ill. Another girl wanted to be put down at her family home, but Delalande refused to permit this, although she was allowed to greet her family as they passed by. It was thus 1345hrs when the unshaven team drove into St-Amand with their relieved passengers, and halted outside the sub-prefecture. The relief for Sadrin and everyone present can be imagined. Lécussan, who was probably drunk by then, unpredictably burst into tears of joy. Asked for the record what she thought of her erstwhile captors, Simone said they were patriots, and that it should be possible for a dialogue between them and the Milice. Unable to believe his ears, Sadrin murmured tiredly, ‘Perhaps you could work on that, Madame’.

Refusing a celebration meal that had been prepared for the occasion, Simone departed for Vichy to rejoin her children, leaving Sadrin, Delalande and the other wondering whether they had been duped, for there was no sign of the hostages from Vichy. Seven prisoners were released in St-Amand, which went some way to assuage their fears. But Bout de l’An kept his word, possibly under the influence of Simone, who assured him that she had not been physically ill treated during her captivity.

At last, about 1500hrs on 25 June, the convoy of hostages from Vichy, escorted by the Gardes Mobiles, arrived in St-Amand amid great rejoicing. The indefatigable Delalande then headed for Vichy to try to make a second deal for an exchange of the
milicien
hostages who were considered not guilty of any particular crime or act of violence against a number of relations of
maquisards
who had been taken prisoner. Bout de l’An did not say yes or no, but Lécussan made it plain that he would do everything possible to frustrate this new initiative. Before that could be sorted out, news came that all communication with the Resistance and Maquis units in the Creuse had been cut, due to a major anti-terrorist drive
launched by the von Jesser Brigade to eliminate all FFI units in the Creuse, Haute Vienne and Corrèze
départements.

The
milicien
hostages still held at the Château de Mérignat were an assorted bunch of twenty men and women. There were the eight men who had been defending the Milice HQ when it was besieged, several of whom came from the disbanded 1RI regiment – not to be confused with the new 1RF regiment. Some of these were on the black list of those known to have denounced
résistants
and Jews and therefore had a number of deaths to answer for. There were also ten other men arrested in the night of 6 June. They had joined up for different reasons – to escape the STO, because their parents told them to earn some money,
etc.
– but had nothing bad known about them. Then there were the two remaining female hostages.

After the departure of Simone and the other girls, one of the male prisoners attempted to escape. A cobbler by trade, physically feeble and obliged to walk with a crutch, he never washed and stank so badly that he was shunned even by his fellow prisoners. When caught before getting very far, he was given an impromptu trial and shot. Blanchard also presided over a hearing of evidence against ‘the traitor’, accused of responsibility for the near-fatal return to St-Amand on 8 June by falsely alleging that it was safe to do so when the German reprisal force was already in the town. Suspicions about him were voiced by several men, but there was no firm evidence. Blanchard therefore gave him the benefit of the doubt and freed him. In view of what was shortly to happen, it is noteworthy that Lalonnier and Chaillaud disagreed vehemently with this decision. They wanted him shot, for the safety of the group.

For the national holiday on 14 July, the nearby towns of Bourganeuf and Sardent were
en fête
, with garlands strung across the streets, a celebration dance organised and a victory parade of the Maquis held on the field where airdrops had taken place, after which ‘François’ – in a better mood than usual – awarded some medals and promoted several men, including Blanchard, now designated ‘Captain Blanchard’. The celebrations were cut short by news of the approach of one of von Jesser’s columns. Down came the garlands as the Maquis drove out to ambush the enemy. Once again, the plan went wrong. Alarmed by Allied aircraft flying overhead, the German vehicles left the road and disgorged the soldiers just before the ambush, where they found themselves face to face with the
maquisards.
In the fighting, two of Blanchard’s men were killed, as was ‘Colonel Kléber’, who had caused all the deaths in Tulle.

The survivors retreated into what ‘François’ called the Iron Triangle of Bourganeuf, Guéret and Aubusson, which he declared a no-go area for von Jesser’s men. Days slipped by. Then, on the night of 16 July German forces surrounded the hideout of ‘François’. He managed to escape and sent couriers to all the Maquis bands in zone R5 to split up and vanish into the countryside. Blanchard’s men decided to head back into the Cher
département
and rendezvous there, where they could count on the support of the population. They split into four parties: one headed north in a small van; the biggest group, totalling ninety men, including van Gaver and Blanchard, set out to march back into the Cher; a smaller section commanded by Chaillaud kept all the heavy weapons; and thirty men planned to slip back using tracks and little roads.

The prisoners were also split up. The two girls and a man who should never have been taken prisoner were left with a local Maquis band, instructed to release them as soon as this was safe. Three hostages who wanted to change sides were taken with Blanchard. The thirteen others were handed over to Chaillaud’s section, a decision that sealed their fate.

Again, nothing went as planned. The largest group marched off to the north until van Gaver, a townsman unused to physical exercise, began to limp. A halt was called in some woods and men despatched to secure meat and other food for the night. At 0600hrs men were again sent out to find food. Before they returned, shots were heard and some other
maquisards
, who had been hiding nearby, ran past, screaming, ‘Get the hell out of here. The Krauts are on our tail!’ The firing was getting nearer. A man fell, shot through the head. A fusillade rang out, proving that the Germans had taken position along one side of the woods and were beating in from the other side, to drive the Maquis on to the guns. Mortar shells began bursting among them and then stopped as the attackers were among them: men in camouflage jackets with machine pistols, who spoke not German but Ukrainian.
Maquisards
who continued fighting were shot down like rabbits. The rest threw away their weapons and waited, hands on their heads in the building heat of a scorching summer day, for the German officers to arrive.

Fifteen men only had escaped through the woods. The wounded men were finished off where they lay. Hours later, sixty-two others were marched off under guard, leaving nine bodies on the ground. Transported in trucks to the town hall of Bourganeuf, they were handed over to the SS, who proceeded to interrogate them with threats and violence about identities, weapons caches and so on. One of the
maquisards
bravely stepped out of line to point out the three
miliciens
, so that they would not be beaten up. They were released. Lined up in the courtyard, all the other men expected to be shot at any minute, until an officer informed them that their execution was to take place at 0500hrs the following day. Locked up in a medieval prison nearby, the prisoners were hungry and terribly thirsty. Some men urinated on their hands, to moisten their lips with the only liquid available.