L'EXODE DE L'ÉTÉ 44

THE EXODUS IN THE SUMMER 1944

Par dizaines de milliers, hommes, femmes, enfants, vieillards, malades prirent les routes, à pied, en charrette, emmenant parfois avec eux leurs vaches. Les uns pour fuir les combats. D’autres contraints par l’armée allemande au fur et à mesure de son recul.

Seules ou en convois des familles entières partent au hasard ou, plus fréquemment, empruntent les itinéraires fixés à l’avance par l’administration de Vichy. Pour les gens de la Manche, ils mènent vers la Mayenne. Pour ceux du Calvados, le principal trajet conduit dans l’Orne. Certains iront beaucoup plus loin encore, vers la Vendée ou le Massif central.

Le périple n’est pas sans danger car les routes sont constamment sous le feu de l’aviation alliée qui ne distingue pas toujours les civils des soldats allemands.

Tens of thousands of men, women and children, including the old and sick, took flight ‑ on foot, in carts, sometimes taking their cows along with them. Some to flee the fighting, while others were ordered to evacuate their homes by the retreating German Army.

Sometimes travelling alone, sometimes in convoys, whole families set out, most of them following itineraries worked out beforehand by the Vichy government. For the inhabitants of the Manche department, these led into the Mayenne, while for those in Calvados, the main route took them in the Orne department. Some went much further, to Vendée or the Massif Central.

The journey was not without danger, as the roads were constantly under fire from Allied aviation, which did not always distinguish between civilians and German soldiers.