Romain Bréget | French Battlefields Guide

Also, we visited the No 32 Casualty Clearing Station emplacement in Reviers, where Glen was treated. A incredible IWM video gave us a wonderful Then/Now.

#Normandy Last week, taking the daughter of a WW2 veteran on her father's footsteps. Glen Schurr was deployed in Normandy with the Highland Light Infantry, and then with the Essex Scottish. WIA August 13th, at Tournebu.
We were able to see the very field were he was wounded.

Yes it is !

#WW2 Visiting some WW2 places today. This building is very significant in the history of the Seconde World War. Do you recognize it ?

#Normandy American Battle of Normandy Tour today: hedgerows, Saint Lo, operation Cobra, Patton breakout, Brittany American Cemetery. A beautiful day out of the beaten roads.

You never know, you might come back ;-)

The photographs of the massacre were discovered and are owned by Baptiste Garin.
Much more context and information are given on the superb book written by Julien Fargettas, historian specialist on the Tirailleurs Sénégalais.

It is estimated to around 3000 Tirailleurs Sénégalais, but also from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, were murdered in May-June 1940.
This was the reality of the Nazi Regime and his Army.
This is what pure racism created.
These men are resting in peace today. We won't forget.

This crime was not isolated: Lentilly, Champagne Mont d'Or, Montée de Balmont....in total, about 170 French soldiers, overwhelmingly African soldiers, were brutally murdered in a few days around Lyon.

The result is atrocious: 48 men, all African Tirailleurs, were killed in this war crime.

They drove in the field, passed piles of bodies, and opened fire toward bushes and wood where some Tirailleurs probably ran away to.

The Panzer IV maneuvered to enter the field and finish their crime.

Our German witness took a picture of the killing while some Tirailleurs were running for their life.

And the two Panzer IV then opened fire...

On the way between Chasselay and Les Chères, they were ordered to walk into a nearby field.

They were unarmed and defenseless, escorted by Wehrmacht soldiers.

The Tirailleurs were taken toward the town of Les Chères, escorted by 2 Panzer IV of the 8th Panzer-Regiment. White French soldiers were separated from their African comrades who are seen here walking by the Panzer IV.

A warning : the next pictures are documenting a WW2 war crime with prisoners being executed.

In 2019, collector Baptiste Garin bought the photobook of a German soldier. Inside, he found pictures of vehicles and men of the 10th Panzer Division. But this German soldier, whose name is still unknown, witnessed and photographed what happened after the Tirailleurs surrendered.

The Germans had bypassed Chasselay. Morning of June 20th, dozens of men are still holding the village. They decided to fight for the honor. The Germans, surprised to find French troops there, attacked. 2 hours of fighting and the remaining 25 RTS decided to surrender.

They were ordered to make a stand in front of several good German Divisions (SS Totenkopf, Grossdeutschland, 10th Panzer). The Germans clashed with French troops around Montluzin and Lissieu, then rushed toward Lyon that was taken at the end of the June 19th.

North of Lyon, the Army was assembling makeshift units to defend the city. Amongst this improvised assembly of mostly untrained men with old weapons was the 25th Regiment Tirailleurs Sénégalais (25 RTS): 2900 men, decent training, decent weapons.

June 19, 1940. The Germans are advancing everywhere in France. Newly appointed Pétain asked for the end of the fighting. But as far as the Army is concern, there is no armistice signed yet. So, many French Army leaders gave order to keep fighting "with no retreat in mind"

#WW2 Chasselay, France, June 20th, 1940. A Panzer IV is opening fire. The target: a group of POW. They are Tirailleurs Senegalais, African Colonial Infantry in the French Army.
This is the most documented massacre made by the German Army during the Battle of France.
A thread 🧵

#WW2 A quick drive around Lyon today: the French Military Cemetery of Chasselay for African soldiers executed by the Germans, bullets impacts from June 1940, the site of the execution of French Resistants, and the German Military Cemetery of Dagneux.

#WW2 A quick drive around Lyon today: the French Military Cemetery of Chasselay for African soldiers executed by the Germans, bullets impacts from June 1940, the site of the execution of French Resistants, and the German Military Cemetery of Dagneux.

#WW2 Lyon, France. Night of July 26-27, 1944, a bomb destroyed Le Moulin à Vent café, a lair of Collaborators and Nazis. No one was killed or injured.
But the Germans rounded up 5 French Resistants from the Montluc jail, drove them in front of the café and shot them hours later.

#WW2 Lyon, France. Night of July 26-27, 1944, a bomb destroyed Le Moulin à Vent café, a lair of Collaborators and Nazis. No one was killed or injured.
But the Germans rounded up 5 French Resistants from the Montluc jail, drove them in front of the café and shot them hours later.

Work Harder Joan Ferguson GIF ALT: Work Harder Joan Ferguson GIF

#Normandy Got my most interesting tour of this year not confirmed last week, most probably they choose a tour company instead of me. Really frustrating, I probably got too excited by this "footsteps" tour.
That's the business. I need to get better to avoid this next time !

#WW2 Italy: another Then and Now I did last November following the footsteps of the French 2nd Moroccan Division fighting in the Abruzzo mountains, before the battles for Monte Cassino.