"The evening of 20 August was taken up with negociations between the German officers and the Loches Liberation Committee. After numerous difficulties and threats to burn the town an agreement was reached in the middle of the night. Loches, occupied anew, must deliver 20 hostages who will be executed if there is the least attack against the Germans within a radius of 5 kilometres around the town.
On 21 August the Germans intended to reassert their presence. The 20 hostages, bargaining chips, were placed under heavy guard, at the Lasnier house, opposite the Chateau de Vauchignard. As a warning to the residents of Loches, three barracks in Place de Verdun were torched, as well as the Tivoli camp. A group of German soldiers visited the farmlet of Corbery and executed three of the four young Resistance fighters who were found there. The German lieutenant in charge of the garrison at Loches visited the hospital with the aim of capturing and shooting the maquisards wounded in the fighting the day before. The intervention of Dr Paul Martinais, who was engaged in caring for a German soldier when the officer arrived, meant that summary executions were prevented.
In the following days the tension was palpable in the streets, felt equally by Loches residents and the Germans. Confusion and suspicion reigned. German trucks passed through the town, heading for the Eastern Front. In the night of 30 August the German soldiers stationed in Place de Verdun fired on a German column that they mistook to be maquisards, and whose passage had not been scheduled. Around Loches fighting raged between the maquis and the German troops, who sought to rejoin their comrades further East at any price."
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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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