" The German Army did not appreciate the defiance of the people of Loches against them. They decided on reprisals against the maquisards and rapidly made more radical decisions to directly attack the inhabitants.
23 July 1944, around midday, a thousand German soldiers arrived at the forest of Preuilly with the aim of surrounding the Maquis Eperon hiding there. Trapped by the Germans, who attacked from all sides, the young men beat a retreat on the orders of their commander. They escaped by crossing the thickets to the north, which were not under surveillance. The Maquis Eperon was thus dispersed. There had been more than 900 men gathered in the forest and only 6 of them were killed in this attack. This bitter partial victory for the Germans led them to install a garrison at the Tivoli Camp in Loches, in order to have better surveillance of the town.
27 July 1944 the Germans decide to undertake a hard hitting operation in order to reinforce their presence and so they went ahead with a real roundup. On this Thursday morning, agents of the Gestapo, the Milice and German soldiers swarmed through the streets and indiscriminantly arrested everyone they encountered. Also arrested, at home or at the station, were most of the Sud Touraine police, who were on a list of suspects to interrogate. Nearly 300 people were brought together in the courtyard of the girls school, to wait for their interrogations. At the end of the day 64 people were sent to the prison in Tours. Amongst these, about 40 of them were police (gendarmes). All were deported to Germany, under inhumain conditions, to the camps of Neuengamme for the men and Ravensbruck for the women. Of those 64 Loches inhabitants, only 16 returned alive."
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This poster is part of an exhibition in the Chancellerie on 'Loches in 1944' https://www.ville-loches.fr/expositions-article-3-10-56.html
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