LThe aerial view is striking. The area of the Saintes SNCF station is riddled with craters. “We counted 414 bomb impacts,” says Claude Sabourin, president of La Roue. The association maintains the railway and working memory of Saintes. She unearths an episode that she calls “The tragic night of Midsummer.” 80 years ago, on the night of June 23 to 24, 1944, between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., bombers…
LThe aerial view is striking. The area of the Saintes SNCF station is riddled with craters. “We counted 414 bomb impacts,” says Claude Sabourin, president of La Roue. The association maintains the railway and working memory of Saintes. She unearths an episode that she calls “The tragic night of Midsummer.” 80 years ago, on the night of June 23 to 24, 1944, between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., Lancaster bombers destroyed the station area.
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An aerial view of the station. We spot the countless bomb impacts.
Saintes: these resistant railway workers who fell for France
They were railway workers, communists and resistance fighters. The La Roue association gives a face to 23 Saintais killed during the Second World War. The collection is presented at the same time as an exhibition on Pierre Semard, from Saturday March 5 to Monday March 7 at the SNCF station
Let’s recall the context. On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy. We must prevent the Germans from supplying the front. The brilliance of the Resistance is not enough. The air attack on Saintes targets an important railway junction. The goal is reached. The main tracks are completely destroyed over 600 meters, a large part of the installations are damaged. It will take the occupier fifteen days to re-establish a single track.
Philippe Ménard/SO
Claude Sabourin, who worked in the workshops, remembers collapses that occurred decades after the bombing.
Delayed explosions
The civilian population pays a heavy price. According to La Roue’s count, there were 32 killed, including eight men, 18 women and eight children, as well as 64 injured. “About 30 hectares of arable land and gardens are rendered unusable by the bombs; 438 buildings are destroyed or uninhabitable; 1,162 families were affected, including 177 who lost everything. »
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The continuity of the building where we recognize the station has been destroyed.
The craters had been summarily backfilled with wood and sleepers. Eventually, it rotted. I remember a wall that collapsed next to the pit track in the 1970s
The consequences will be felt for a long time. Bombs continued to explode over the following days. One of them burst on September 15, 1947, creating a hole ten meters in diameter, without causing serious injury. “The 200 or 300 travelers present had settled in the station following the bad weather,” reports La Route in the booklet dedicated to the event. “The craters had been summarily backfilled with wood and sleepers. Eventually, it rotted. I remember a wall that collapsed next to the pit track in the 1970s. There was barely ten centimeters of concrete,” adds Claude Sabourin.
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Buildings housing out-of-service workshops.
65 dead on August 14
Another bombing marked the city, during the day of August 14, 1944. This time, the planes targeted the roads leading to Royan and the oil depots near the Léo-Lagrange stadium. Between 10:55 a.m. and 11:03 a.m., 400 250 kg bombs rained down on the right bank. The tanks, which had been emptied, were barely affected. The Taillebourg barracks, near the Abbaye aux Dames, topped by an anti-aircraft battery, was cut in two.
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Another image showing the damage caused by the bombs.
On the civilian side, the toll is terrible. There are 65 deaths and 119 injured. Between the Abbaye aux Dames and the Saint-Pallais cemetery, 615 houses were damaged, including 115 destroyed. The face of an entire neighborhood will emerge transformed.
La Roue produced an exhibition from its research, accompanied by a slideshow of photographs. It will be set up inside the station, this Sunday June 23 and Monday June 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is extended by a booklet, “Saintes under the bombs” (10 euros), available from the association.
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