Gunned Down in the Forest

Every year on 20 August there is a memorial service for a group of men who were shot in the forest at a place called Kerleroulx. The memorial on the side of the road lists three men, Fernand Lussault, Prosper Douard and Raymond Le Pautremat, but there was a fourth man who was shot too. The three on the memorial were killed by the Nazis, but local farmer Emile Guidoux, who tried to come to their aid, was wounded and survived.

The forest allée where the men were shot.

 Kerleroulx is a chateau farming estate between Manthelan and Loches which German troops burned down on 20 August 1944 in one of the first skirmishes in the battle to liberate Loches. The Germans were coming from Manthelan, on their way to Loches. 

The memorial on the side of the D760.

Prosper Douard was from Esvres sur Indre and worked as a gamekeeper and forester on the Kerleroulx estate. Raymond le Pautremat was from Morbihan, working as a farm labourer at Kerleroulx and probably there as a means of hiding out and avoiding conscription as forced labour for the Germans.

The town of Loches had been liberated, but four days later, on 20 August, the Germans launched a counter offensive to retake the town because of its strategic importance to the German retreat south of the Loire. They arrived at Kerleroulx at 5am, arresting Emile Guidoux, the farm manager, and two of his workers, Raymond le Pautremat and Fernand Lussault, who were accused of shooting at the German soldiers. They were taken about forty metres from the chateau, along with Douard, then marched to a forest allée. After about sixty metres the Germans opened fire and cut the French men down. Douard, le Pautremat and Lussault were killed but Guidoux, hit by several bullets but only wounded, managed to escape to a neighbouring farm, where some farm labourers succeeded in hiding him from the Germans.

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