Massacre at Tulle

Adding some further info to my Oradour Sur Glane thread the other day I remembered Sapper also commented about a incident that happened in Tulle around the same time.

I decided to do some further research and think I've come up with pretty much what happened in June 1944.

Its quite Ironic that after visiting Oradour on my biking holiday in 2008 my guide took me to Tulle for the day and while we sat outside drinking coffee at a local cafe soaking up the atmosphere he told me that the town centre is beautiful in the summer. He explained that the locals hang numerous large flower baskets from the balconies and lamp posts in the town centre. Little did I know as I allowed the info to slip from my mind as I ordered another Laite.


After posting the Oradour pictures and reading what Sapper said jogged my memory about Tulle on researching it appears the flowers are hung to remember a more sinister time in Tulles history.

Three days after the landings at Normandy the SS-Division Das Reich was heading North from the South of France. Elements of this Division moved into Tulle in response to local FTP (Resistance) activities. When the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' took over the town they found 40 dead bodies of the German 3rd Battalion/95th Security Regiment garrison troops near the school, their bodies badly mutilated. Other bodies were found around the town, bringing the total German dead in Tulle to sixty-four. The following day the reprisals began, all the men were gathered in the square and 130 suspects were selected for execution. 3 were released because of their youth and the remaining 99 were executed by the Pioneer Platoon of SS-Panzer Aufklarungs Abteilung 2. Their bodies were hung up on lamp-posts and from balconies along the main streets of the town in the hope that the hanging bodies would deter further attacks by the Maquis and the local FTP. It has been said that more would have been hanged but for the SS running out of rope. Because of this a further 149 civilians were bundled into transport and taken to Germany to be used as slave labour. 101 of these civilians never returned.

All of this happened the day before Das Reich moved into Oradour Sur Glane to carry on commiting mass murder.

The memorial in Tulle to the 99 dead of 9 June 1944. This monument has been erected at the junction of the principal roads where the men were hung. It reads, "Martyrs quarter. To the memory of the victims of Nazism. 9 June 1944. The SS-Division Das Reich hanged 99 hostages on the balconies and lampposts and 149 were deported to the death camps. 101 did not return". The road leading to the GIAT arms factory is to the left of this view.


This is the entrance to the GIAT (Industrial Group for Terrestrial Armaments) factory courtyard on the north-western side of Tulle. It was in the courtyard behind the blue gates where the men of Tulle were assembled on the 9 June 1944 and the selection made of those who were to be executed. This was in retaliation for their (supposed) part in the attack on the German garrison of the town the previous day. Unlike Oradour, there is no attempt in Tulle to preserve things as they were. Apart from calling the principal street where the men were hung, 'Rue des Martyrs', erecting a monument to the dead at its foot and putting up memorial stones in the cemetery, there is nothing about the town to remind one of the events of 1944. Even the Tourist Office does not volunteer information; you have to ask quite specifically about the event. The free town guide obtainable from the office takes you on a walk around the historic town centre, but nowhere near the sites of execution (it does not even mention the event).


Looking up the road that leads to the arms factory. The memorial to the Martyrs is out of sight to the right of this view. This area was the main location for the hangings. The lampposts and balconies of the streets to the front and the left of view being used as gallows. Since 1944 many of the original lampposts have been replaced with new ones and the buildings themselves have been altered to a greater or lesser extent. Tulle, unlike Oradour-sur-Glane is a living town and things change, there is no sense of preserving the past intact here.


Some of the original execution sites in Tulle on 9th June 1944 (the lamp posts) can be seen in this picture. The view is towards the GIAT factory (out of direct sight behind the low white building on the right).


A view of the Martyrs Cemetery on the outskirts of Tulle to the west of the town on the N89, the road to Brive la Gaillarde. This is one of the plaques and the inscription reads, "To the Martyrs of Tulle, victims of Nazism 9th June 1944." followed by a partial list of names. All the victims are remembered on different plaques within this cemetery.


Many thanks to the Oradour Picture Gallery

 

Andy,

It must have been an interesting bike trip for you.
But at the same time it really brings home the horrors that have been inflicted during wartime.

For the last four years I have driven the family down to Croatia and stopped on the Adriatic.
Taking day trips up the mountains and visiting some quaint villages really brought the horrors of war home to me, after we visited a church and churchyard.
The views were stunning from the churchyard, but as I looked around I saw a large memorial stone with many names chiselled into it.
They all had the same date of death, which I thought quite strange at first and then after speaking to a local found out thet the village was a centre for the resistance and one day the German Army arrived and rounded up a lot of residents, before executing them as examples.

It is hard to visualise these scenes when you visit years later and see the beauty of the place.

Truly heart rendering.

Regards
Tom

 

Well done Drew.... I find it hard to come to terms with the fact that those peaceful photo's are the places of horror in 1944.

For those of you that welcome retribution. The sights in and around the Falaise pocket would be an eye opener... never to be forgotten... Ever! I can still smell it!
Sapper

 

Its Sapper that gets the thanks. If he never mentioned what happened in Tulle on the Oradour Sur Glane thread I would have dismissed the hanging flower baskets as a summer competition and that would have been the end of it.

So cheers Sapper !

 

That's the beauty of this Forum. Since I joined in November last year, I've found I can't get by without my twice daily fix of reading and learning about this period of history.

And having a real laugh at some of the off the wall stuff. Priceless, all of it.

 

Should anyone care to learn more about the journey of 2nd SS through France, Max Hastings wrote a book about it: Das Reich: The March of the 2nd Panzer Division Through France, 1944: Max Hastings: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Here is an extract from an article about the atrocities committed at Tulle: On June 7, word reached Das Reich command, that FTP forces had attacked the German garrison unit in the town of Tulle. The Der Fuhrer regiment arrived on the outskirts of town on June 9. The reconaissance battalion (under the command of Major Heinrich Wulf) entered the city without significant loss, relieving the beleagured defenders of the 95th Security Regiment

A total of 139 Germans were killed, some of which (the SS alleged) were German prisoners. A reprisal order was issued, the source of which is disputed. Direct responsibility for the subsequent reprisals however, became that of the senior staff officer, Major Albert Stuckler: Lammerding claimed he arrived on the 9 June, after the reprisals had already occurred, an allegation disputed by Colonel Stuckler and Major Wulf. In any event, a large number of male civilians were rounded up and 97 were randomly selected and hung from lamposts and balconies, under the supervision of Major Kowatsch. 321 additional captives were trucked off, presumably to Germany for forced labor. Incidentally, neither Stuckler or Wulf expressed any remorse for these actions, when interviewed in 1980 by Max Hastings, a British journalist

Its taken from this site: DAS REICH HOME PAGE - 2nd SS Panzer Division which seems to be above board and is endorsed by the Axis History Forum, so it doesnt seem to be a revisionist or apologist site.

 

Drew.
Interesting how the memoirs of veterans sometimes (but not always) ties in with what is discovered 64 years on.

I like your photos, but even more Drew; your presentation on the subject of Orador and Tulle.

The greatest shame, is that any of Das Reich escaped the fiery cauldron of the Falaise Pocket. For in there were sights almost beyond comprehension. The smell of burnt human flesh and the dead was overpowering.

The stench of death. Is perhaps the most powerful memory of Normandy. After all these years I don't think that people realise the import of that great German defeat or how many were trapped in that boiling cauldron of death and destruction.
Sapper

 

Cheers Sapper.

HG,

I was going to say that I bet Hastings interviewed some of them and it makes sense now he has written a book. Whilst looking for info for James about the Paradis Massacre I read that Max Hastings had interviewed some of the Regiments key personel. They didn't show any remorse either apparently.

Cheers for posting that.
Andy