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Less famous
than the great exodus of May-June 1940, when several million French
people took to the road during the German invasion, the exodus
undertaken in the summer of 1944 by the inhabitants of Lower Normandy
was nevertheless a massive phenomenon by regional standards. |
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Leaving the farm |
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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 spontaneously took this action in order to flee the fighting, while
others were ordered to evacuate their homes by the retreating German
Army.
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A family of Normandy farmers joins in the exodus |
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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 to
Trun in the Orne department. Some went much further, to Vendée or the
Massif Central.
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Near
Saint-Pois (Manche), a grandmother and her granddaughter, exhausted by
the distances they are forced to travel each day |
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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. Around thirty refugees, for instance,
were killed near Vire, following a rocket attack by a squadron of
American fighter-bombers. |
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Convoy
of refugees on the road between Saint-Lô and Coutances |
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