la Branlerie, 1944

[Helene Anderson]

This week managed to get to a site that I had been meaning to get to for a while, since first reading about it. An event that happened on the 27 June 1944 at a hamlet in the department of the Vienne (86).

An abandoned hamlet, tucked away in a forest, that had been used by the resistance in 1944, until on the morning of the 27 June 1944. That day the forest was surrounded by the SS and other forces in an attempt to find the resistance forces.

All that is left are ruins after the SS had set fire to the hamlet.

Path leading to la Branlerie

Bread Oven where weapons were kept

Main building in the hamlet

One of the two wells​

The fuller article is on my blog here. though I gather not all photos can be seen by all.

 

[Mark Hampton]

This week managed to get to a site that I had been meaning to get to for a while, since first reading about it. An event that happened on the 27 June 1944 at a hamlet in the department of the Vienne (86).

An abandoned hamlet, tucked away in a forest, that had been used by the resistance in 1944, until on the morning of the 27 June 1944. That day the forest was surrounded by the SS and other forces in an attempt to find the resistance forces.

All that is left are ruins after the SS had set fire to the hamlet.

Path leading to la Branlerie

Bread Oven where weapons were kept

Main building in the hamlet

One of the two wells​

The fuller article is on my blog here. though I gather not all photos can be seen by all.

Hélène,

i like the quiet from here... the contrast between the refected light and what occurred in this space works for me.

its a counterpoint... Keep these coming.

cheers

 

[Helene Anderson]

Thanks Mark.

It was a bit eerie. Plus there was a hunt going on that morning so I had to be careful though I knew roughly where the hunters were and I had spoken to a couple of them so they knew I was there.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Path leading to la Branlerie​

Hélène,

What camera did you use and are you going to do more with the picture. I hope you have a great file and you will do more on this. I ask since one might work for many hours on each individual leaf in the forrest floor, as if that would honor the path the men took in using this fateful site for their camp, because the other camp ran out of water.

Is this the story behind the pictures! Or perhaps, instead, this. Both are equally are grim but that latter is horrific. The actual location must be here.

"Cette cache fait suite à l'aire de repos;C'était un petit village au coeur de la foret;Il fut incendié par les soldats allemand le 27 juin 1944, car il avait caché des résistants."

I imagine that informers serve selfish purposes usually. That they would betray the allied soldiers and the French Resistance is disappointing as are all betrayals. Finally here's the rest of the tragic and cruel story.

Asher

 

[Helene Anderson]

Hello Asher,

I use a Nikon D200.

The first link you had Asher is another event that was in the same area. I haven't done anything on that except gone to the graveyard at Rom and seen the graves. The second link, Oradour, is quite a few kilometres from here in the Haute Vienne (87).

The location of la Branlerie is here on the map.

I won't do any more on la Branlerie. I have seen what I have seen and it is time to move on to another site, another story to find.

The idea was a project entited (for the moment) 'Second Hand War' - how far I'll get with that I don't know.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hello Asher,

I use a Nikon D200.

The first link you had Asher is another event that was in the same area. I haven't done anything on that except gone to the graveyard at Rom and seen the graves. The second link, Oradour, is quite a few kilometres from here in the Haute Vienne (87).

The location of la Branlerie is here on the map.

I won't do any more on la Branlerie. I have seen what I have seen and it is time to move on to another site, another story to find.

This, Hélène, is a most moving story you have opened for us. I have not been affected so much by any other even in occupied France except the taking of the Children from the orphanages. This seems to be one of the most remarkable and illustrative episodes in that terrible pain put on France.

Why did the leaders of the storm troopers divert themselves from the goal of getting the panzer division to the coast to fight the invasion and liberation of France? The people they killed were not the Jews they hated but French, their "subjected citizens" of the Petain regime. What could be the reason for this slaughter?

The idea was a project entited (for the moment) 'Second Hand War' - how far I'll get with that I don't know.

You have already gotten far. There's a great potential for your pictures. I'm so impressed by what you have discovered and shared with us.

Why the Second Hand War"?, Explain?

I asked about the camera, only because I wondered how robust the files would be for optimizing for great prints. For me, this project will linger in my mind for a long time. I will try to visit the place.

The Google Earth view is amazing like a beautiful tapestry when one looks at a wider view.

Thanks,

Asher

 

[Helene Anderson]

'Second Hand War' based on something a teacher said at school some years ago.

"You, children of your age have never known peace"

Gosh, a profound statement for us aged about fourteen, fifteen. Yet we hadn't seen troops marching down the road, never been bombed.

She went on to explain that since we were born there had been a war going on. There had been wars throughout history probably. However, before the advent of the television one would get news by reading a paper, new reels at the cinema. With television we had the wars brought into our living rooms. We experienced the wars (past and present) second hand.

I looked back and this was true, on the news each night the Vietnam war, the troubles in Ulster, the middle east, I have never been to war but have never known peace.

Like the project around where I live this will be a slow one, bits here, bits there, depending what I can find.

Sorry (?) if I have raised so many questions in your mind, alas I can not answer them all, can anybody, so many years after memories are vague and it is the victors that write the history books.

It is hard to ask questions here, not everybody wants to talk, it is for the writers and photographers to interperet what is left for others to see.

 

[Bob Latham]

There is some further reading here for anyone with a working knowledge of French (or use Google translation)....select the second link "27 juin 1944 : le massacre du maquis de la forêt de Saint-Sauvant"

I have to confess that I live within 10km of the place and hadn't heard of it until talking to Hélène yesterday. It's now on my list of places to explore and research a little further.

Bob