When Lotois Resistance fighters liberated Médoc: “a little-known story” brought to light

“This story is not known to the Lotois and yet a significant part of the Lot Resistance fighters fought there,” observes Marc Paraire, departmental director of OnacVG 46. Over there, it’s the Médoc: there At the age of 80, Lotois helped bring down the last pockets of German soldiers at Pointe de Grave. A trip by high school students from Cahors this spring to Gironde and an exhibition from May 8 will commemorate this event. This is why the Office is calling on the Lotois archives.

Photos, letters, stories from veterans

Certainly, Nicolas Rose, deputy director of the National Office for Veterans and War Victims of Lot, has gleaned a number of documents: in the departmental archives of Lot and Gironde, those of the Resistance Museum Association, of the deportation and liberation of Lot, of army services. Not to mention the bulletins of the Lotoise Association of Alumni of Pointe de Grave, chaired by Jacques Hugon, who died last June.

Also read:
Jacques Hugon, former resistance fighter and entrepreneur from Lot, is no longer

But he would also like to collect photos, cards, letters and personal stories from these veterans. The goal: to use them in the exhibition but also in an educational workshop. Around thirty final year students from Clément Marot will go to Gironde in April with Le Souvenir français and their teachers Pierre-Etienne Baux and Hélène Thiery. “And for example, facing the swamp, it would be good to read a testimony,” imagines Nicolas Rose.

“Most had never been in military service”

This project is part of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, launched in 2024. “We wondered how to continue this cycle of memory in the department knowing that we were liberated on August 17, 1944,” explains Marc Paraire. You might think that afterwards there would be emptiness [dans le Lot]. But a huge number of FFI left to liberate Toulouse. And many of them continued: 200 to 300 in the Vosges, 1,500 in the Médoc. There were people there of all ages, origins, and political opinions, Lotois but also refugees and foreigners living in the Lot.

And, paradoxically, it was when the war was over in their department that they entered into a real conflict. “Most of them had never had military engagement,” observes Nicolas Rose. He tells about their recovered weapons and outfits: Russian, English or French rifles, disparate uniforms.

“They had makeshift shelters”

The 2nd Lot Infantry Regiment was created on October 1, 1944 in Toulouse. It has 1,800 men, including Corréziens, Périgourdins, Lot-et-Garonnais and Aveyronnais. At the end of the month, he was sent to the Médoc, within the Carnot brigade. Faced with these approximately 3,500 Resistance fighters, 5,000 Germans including 4,000 soldiers.

These are difficult conditions, in swamps, in winter, facing the Kriegsmarine. The tip of Médoc is dotted with nearly 300 German bunkers and 800,000 mines. French positions are shelled every evening. “They had makeshift shelters. Testimonies from elders tell of the water rising,” explains Marc Paraire. In short, a war of position like in 14-18.

73 Lotois resistance fighters died

Then on April 14, the offensive was finally launched. The Lotois quickly distinguished themselves: the bridges being impassable, they recovered boats, crossed the marshes and established a bridgehead in the German lines. On April 20, the 2nd RI of Lot took Pointe de Grave. Two days later, in Bordeaux, General De Gaulle greeted them with “The work has been done and well done, thank you children”. “It had an impact on them; Jacques Hugon often spoke about it,” remembers Marc Paraire.

73 Lotois resistance fighters died in the Médoc. 80 years later, almost all the fighters at Pointe de Grave have disappeared. The exhibition will bring their heroic gesture to life.