Hi All, While recently reading 'Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army - The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories' by John Grehan and Martin Mace, I came across an incident which occurred in early July 1944 in which two SOE agents were cornered and killed by the Gestapo somewhere near the village of Pierrefitte-en-Cinglais, Calvados. The exact location is described as a farmhouse in Saint Clair. The two SOE agents were: Lieutenant Maurice Larcher, born in Mauritius and parachuted into France as a radio operator for the SCIENTIST circuit on the 10th February 1944. Captain Jean Renaud-Dandicolle, from Bordeaux who was already a member of the French Resistance as early as 1942, before escaping to England and joining the SOE. Following a period of training, he was re-inserted into France on the 28th January 1944. The Map below shows the two villages: Does anyone know the location of the farmhouse? Thanks, Pat
OK, I found a photograph here of the monument built from the remains of the farmhouse around which the shoot out took place. The farmhouse, which the Germans burned down after the battle, is or was known as Ferme Grosclaude and is somewhere not far NE of Saint Clair on the D23 road if Google Translate is not putting me astray on the French sites Getting close... Regards, Pat
Good old Google 'street view' The monument location is arrowed red below: The French sites speak of five being killed, but I am not sure if this figure includes Allied airmen :huh: Good job it's Friday night Regards, Pat
Well done Pat - the link piece I have put on the Henry Cleary page doesn't state the number of evaders either. "Although the final logbook entry stated that he forced landed, other reports were to the effect that he had parachuted successfully to earth. From there forwards, there is little certainty. He spoke French, had been trained how to evade capture, and probably put that into practice. At some point he linked up with several other men. One was a Frenchman—Jean Foncu—and another was Lieutenant Maurice Larcher, a British officer who had been parachuted into France the previous February with a radio. They were betrayed by a French quisling, and on July 8 were besieged in a farmhouse. Foncu escaped. Another man (possibly a downed airman) was captured. Larcher (with his radio) and Cleary were killed. Did they die in the firefight? Were they shot against a wall? We do not know. The only certainty is that Larcher was posthumously Mentioned in Dispatches." I note the piece from www.ouest-france.fr Le vendredi 7 juillet, dès potron-minet, les Grosclaude partent traire les vaches, avec le chien. Sans méfiance particulière, deux gradés SS entrent dans la ferme pour dormir. Pas d'aboiements pour prévenir. Ils se retrouvent face à quatre résistants. Fusillade, sauve-qui-peut général. Jean Renaud-Dandicolle, Maurice Larcher, Harry Cleary seront arrêtés, puis fusillés. Comme Georges et Eugénie Grosclaude. Le quatrième résistant, Jean Foucu, réussit à s'échapper. translates as Friday, July 7, at the crack of dawn, the Grosclaude go milk the cows, with the dog. No particular suspicion, two SS officers enter the farm to sleep. No barking to prevent. They are faced with four strong. Shooting stampede may generally. Jean-Renaud Dandicolle, Maurice Larcher, Harry Cleary will be arrested and shot. As George and Eugenie Grosclaude. The fourth-resistant, Jean Foucu, managed to escape. - so now we know the people involved, and Dandicolle, Larcher and Cleary were murdered and not shot in an attack on the farm Google street view is an invaluable research tool. In fact, I used it to find a suitable place to watch the last stage of this years Tour de France, and I was at a roundabout a few Km from the start at Evry, and couldn't have been closer to the action, nor the goodies from the publicity caravan!! We even worked out where to park the car off road as well!! regards Allan
Hi Allan, Still not sure of the exact location of the farmhouse but it cannot be far from the monument if the stones from the ruins were used in the construction of the wall behind the Cross of Lorraine feature. The site of the newly constructed monument shows up very well on IGN cover flown in 1947 as you would expect before the landscaping had a chance to grow up: The Grosclaude family donated the site so we know the field to the immediate north of the monument forms part of the farm. I am therefore considering two locations as shown on the Bing Map extract below: The large circle numbered '1' encompasses a number of farm buildings, but interestingly, no farmhouse! The house numbered '3' is another possibility but I also note with interest that the there appears to be a new house and associated farm buildings at number '2' - is this house the replacement for the old farmhouse? I had a look in the NCAP archive for reconnaissance cover flown over the area in the summer of 1944 and found one frame digitised - NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_2806_4149 flown on the 8th August, a full month after the shootout at the Grosclaude farmhouse. My eye was drawn to a light toned dot thereon... Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk ...the light toned feature is circled blue on the zoomed extract below: Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk It could of course be just a clearing in the wood, but what I really like about it is that when I geo-positioned the same extract over the Bing Map extract... ...I got a location (circled yellow) to the immediate south of a cluster of present day farm buildings. This obviously needs local knowledge to be sure we have the right spot. Can anyone confirm this as being the Grosclaude Farm location? Reading from the entry for Lieutenant Maurice Larcher on pages 97-98 of 'Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army - The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories', the account of the action at the farmhouse is given thus: The entry in the book for Captain Jean Renaud-Dandicolle has more details of the fight at the farmhouse which I will post next. Regards, Pat
Well researched Pat - I feel that we have gone as far as we can with Henry Cleary the pilot, now we need to establish what actually happened to Henry Cleary the evader, and his colleagues - we have one report, from the French newspaper, that two SS men were involved, earlier IIRC we had a comment that it was two Gestapo members, and from your book extract above "A neighbour had reported suspicious activity to the Germans and soldiers were sent round to investigate. Larcher died in the ensuing fight" - as Larcher killed one of the Germans I don't expect that only 1 was left and overwhelmed all the others, as "soldiers" seems, to me, to imply a group of probably platoon strength to investigate "suspicious activity" behind German lines with allied troops occupying a beachhead not too far away from the scene. Regards Allan
Hi Allan, The entry for Captain Renaud-Dandicolle reads slightly differently but with added detail: No mention of other casualties; French Resistance or Allied airmen. I thought I read last night on one of the French sites that there were five casualties... Like all these stories, there are probably several accounts of the same incident - all probably true but just not joined up to each other. Regards, Pat
hello Pat Thanks for the update - one thing missing in the account is what happened to Cleary, as he doesn't get a mention by name after line 2, and the final line states "in memory of the three men", so we know that Larcher died at the scene, Renaud-Dandicolle died later (location unknown), and no mention of Cleary being one of the three, but only three names are mentioned, apart from the farmer and his wife!! As you state "several accounts of the same incident" exist, it is just a case of finding them all (with names hopefully), and coming up with the full story in case it does involve other resistants and evaders?! Wonder what happened to the quisling? regards Allan
Hi Allan, The GE 'street view' of the St Clair memorial is not good enough to show the wording but IIRC, I found a reference on one of the French sites to a book written by a local historian on the Resistance in the area. As usual, I cannot find the page again Regards, Pat
Hello Pat Hopefully you will find the page again - failing that I am sure that St. Clair has an official e-mail address so that a message can be sent asking if they have either heard of Jean Foucu/Foncu or is he mentioned on the war memorial, and also do they have any information in their archives about the incident itself. Perhaps the local police station has something in their archives as well regards Allan
Gents, This is exactly the sort of project I was hoping to amuse myself with once I get to my new place in France! Any excuse for a day out is a good one, and this is an ideal one. St Clair is 70km from La Piquenniere - about an hour's drive. I'm happy to mount a mini-mission of fact-finding once I'm in situ and sorted. Its now looking like the end of October for my move, so dont hold your breath(s). I'm also quite handy with a camera and a former police detective, so I suggest in the meanwhile we get our heads together and come up with a "briefing pack" of all the info you already know, plus questions you'd like to answer and locations to be photographed. Since we all love aerial photos, here's my new place: Phil
Pat, I think I can rule out area 1 - my latest work on box 104 (2 of 4) suggests the area was solid forest. I have "completed" part 2 of box 104 - I have been lazy and only included a few key frames, but the whole flight pattern is established and can be seen in the KML: Box104 2 of 4 Tantalisingly, frame 3280 juuuuuuuust clips the edge of the AoI... Coverage:
Hi Guys, I found the book again - it's title is La Résistance en Suisse Normande, le Maquis de Saint-Clair (1940-1944) by Gérard Fournier and is available from the publisher here at €23.50 plus carriage. Google Translate says the description reads: So, are the other 'airmen' actually British paras or perhaps glider pilots? I'll order the book as soon as I can figure out how to sign up for an account (they have other interesting titles also), but before I do, does anyone have a copy already? Phil, nice work on the new cover in box 104, part 2 from the LMHA archive. Frame 3280 is of course just 3 days prior to the American sortie NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_2806_4149 which has the possible burnt farmhouse. Obviously if we could find pre 8th July cover, it might show no mark at the same location, thereby helping to strengthen our theory. I am not too concerned about the heavy woodland covering the present day location of the sheds. My guess would be that the original farmhouse would have had one or two small sheds under the tress and the owners just continued to use the immediate location as an expanded farmyard complex, clearing the trees in the process. Mind you it wouldn't be the first theory of mine that got shot to pieces here Looking forward to having you on the ground Phil in France. The 'shopping list' could get very long Regards, Pat
Sorry for the delay in replying - thanks Pat for this further update, it is getting more interesting by each new post - the answer is out there!! regards Allan