Semaphore of Creac'h-Maout

CREAC'H-MAOUT 1944-1994

"Passant, va dire à la France que ceux qui sont tombés ici sont morts selon leur cœur".
André MALRAUX

During the Second World War, the Germansmade the Creac'h-Maout semaphore a base for coastal surveillance and defense, constructing extensive fortified works.
In August 1944, this semaphore was the scene of tragic events, which unfolded as follows

August 5, 1944
In the last days ofJuly 1944, as theAmerican troops approached, the German troops garrisoned at Île à Bois (Lézardrieux) and St Laurent (Pleubian), attempted to gain the Lorient and Brest pockets by road.
Only the garrison of the Creac'h-Maout semaphore, some fifty men, preferred to stay put and, seeing events deteriorate, asked to surrender.
The prisoners were taken to the town of Pleubian and housed in the village hall, pending the arrival of the allies.
But the two German garrisons named above, having found the roads blocked, return to their point of departure and learning of the surrender of their comrades from Creac'h-Maout, decide to deliver them.
In the evening, the prisoners are taken back to the semaphore, for fear of reprisals against the town's inhabitants.
Meanwhile, three German soldiers, belonging to the group stationed at Iles à Bois (Lézardrieux), come to Pleubian to requisition carts. They seriously wounded BOTCAZOU, 21, with an explosive bullet, he died the next morning, and shot dead a young woman,Zénaïde LE PARANTHOEN, wife BARLOUER, 25, as she rode her bicycle.

August 6, 1944
From the German garrison on Île à Bois, alerted to the events at Creac'h-Maout, elements head for Armor.
At around 1:30 pm, they stopped at a place called Croas-Hent, in Lanmodez, shot dead in the courtyard of her farm Adèle LE GUEVEL, wife L'ANTHOEN and drive her two sons Yves and Victor as well as Yves LE BERRE (16 years old) and Jean Baptiste KERNIVINEN (16 years old) to the nearby Carpont to be fusilled.
Thanks to the intervention of Mr. L'ANTHOEN père, one of the sons, Victor is allowed to return home. The second, Yves, although very seriously hit by several gunshots, manages to escape death.
In the evening, the Île à Bois group tries to deliver the garrison, the fight begins: the Germans put their mortiers in battery near the Armor cemetery and open fire in the direction of the said place. 2 people are killed by shrapnel from mortar shells. Monsieur l'Abbé Joseph LE FLOCH, rector of l'Armor and a little girl, 10-year-old Léonie LIBOUBAN.

August 7, 1944
At dawn, a new engagement takes place and an attack in the direction of the semaphore begins, using one or two mortiers and a canon.
In a position of obvious inferiority, many patriots leave the semaphore across the ruined fields by the side opposite the German positions. Others, perhaps more confident of what was to come, preferred to wait it out.
The Germans, outnumbered and better armed, quickly took up position of the premises taking 21 prisoners.
In the hours that followed, the Germans hunted down all around the surviving patriots who had found refuge in the surrounding area. Romain BOCHER (30 years old) and Ernest LE PETIT (38 years old) injuredduring the fighting were able to reach a nearby house, where they died for lack of care, the Germans shooting at families who tried to approach to rescue the wounded.
5 other patriots are killed on this day,Jean LEMARCHAND (31 years old), Jean LE VAILLANT (38 years old), Yves-Marie LE GALL (44 years old), Yves-Marie MEUDAL (40 years old), Yves Marie BOUGEANT (26 years old).
In the early afternoon, at St Antoine, young Louis ALLAINGUILLAUME (17) not belonging to any resistance group, is discovered by the Germans in a trench, where he has taken refuge to escape reprisals, he is shot on the spot.
Until August 16 no news of the prisoners.

August 16, 1944
On this day, American tanks burst into the town hall square in Pleubian. Immediately informed of the Creac'h-Maout tragedy, the Americans, accompanied by a group of patriots, set off for the semaphore.
Alas! up there, no more life, it's desolation....
Two mass graves are discovered, containing 21 corpses whose medical examination establishes that the victims, whose names follow, were atrociously tortured before being executed: Ernest ALLAINGUILLAUME (43 years old), Yves-Marie ANDRE (33 years old), Francis BIDEAU (22 years old), Charles CORLOUER (44 years old), Francis GUILLOU (36 years old), Gustave LAMANDE (22 years), François L'ANTHOEN (27ans), Yves-Marie LE BOZEC (32 years), Gustave LE CARBOULLEC (18 years), Yves-Marie LE CLEUZIAT (41 years), Eugène LE LOSTEC (27 years), Henry LE MEVEL (43 years), Pierre LE MEVEL (33 years), Pierre LE PARLOUER (36 years), Eléazar LE ROUX (21 years), Pierre LE ROUX (35 years), Marcel LE SAUX (19 years), Yves LE TALLEC (23 years), Yves-Marie MARJOU (42 years), André PARANTHOEN (20ans), Félicien PLOMION (35 years).

On 5/02/1946, the Mayor of Pleubian, addressed the Minister of Justice, informing him of the atrocities committed at Creac'h-Maout and asking that the criminals be sought for war crimes.
On 27/08/1951, the Permanent Military Tribunal of Paris dismissed the case against the Germans from the semaphore at Creac'h-Maout and Île à Bois for insufficiently precise identification of the accused.
The cultural association "PLEUBIAN et son passé".

Photo credit Thérèse Gaigé