Penguerec massacre
In the Penguerec massacre on August 7, 1944, German marines killed 42 French civilians in a so-called retaliatory action.
Military situation
In early August 1944, fighting broke out in the region between advancing American troops and German soldiers from the Brest naval base . German army units withdrew surprisingly, while the marines had to remain at their posts in a confusing situation. On August 7, Penguerec, a district of Gouesnou (northeast of the French port city of Brest), came between the fronts.
massacre
On August 7, paratroopers and a local resistance group attacked a German observation post in the Gouesnou church tower in the German-occupied hinterland. This attack was repulsed and German marines were sent to reinforce it. On the way, they arbitrarily arrested French passers-by, searched houses in the village and arrested residents at random. When the Germans then withdrew in the direction of Penguerec, they carried 26 residents and another nine previously arrested civilians with them.
At about the same time, soldiers from a searchlight post attacked two farms in Penguerec, throwing hand grenades, killing five residents and injuring two others. Machine gun fire could be heard in the evening. The next day the bodies of the abducted were found near the farmhouses. A total of 42 victims were makeshift buried on the orders of the Germans. They were exhumed in January 1945 and duly buried.
Responsibilities
For a long time it remained unclear which German units were involved in the massacre. Initially, soldiers from the 2nd Paratrooper Division were suspected of being the perpetrators. However, witnesses to the raid in Gouesnou recognized soldiers from the naval artillery from the anti-aircraft batteries. Allegedly a "Lieutenant Müller" of the 9th submarine flotilla stationed in Brest ordered the massacre. A soldier known by name from the group of perpetrators is said to have been questioned by the Counter Intelligence Corps at the end of August , but nothing more is known. Most of those directly involved will have died in the fighting to withdraw.
The basis for the order is a decree of the Luftwaffe Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle on the fight against partisans of February 3, 1944, which opened the door to arbitrariness.
literature
- Lars Hellwinkel: Gouesnou - a naval massacre in Brittany. In: Oliver von Wrochem (Ed.): Repressalien und Terror. Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78721-7 , pp. 203-215.
Individual evidence
- ^ Order printed in extracts from Lars Hellwinkel: Gouesnou - a massacre of the navy in Brittany. P. 215.