Denise Lecourtois Neuville au Plain - Manche Version Française

My parents ran a combination grocery store and café in the town of Neuville au Plain, which bordered the road to Cherbourg. I was, at that time, 21 years old, and we all (I and my siblings) lived at my parents' home. My parents took care of the store, and we also milked the cows and cared for the animals that we had in the fields around the village.

From the perspective of our village, there was no suggestion as to what was about to happen. There were no abnormal activities, nor was there any sign that would have shown us what was going to happen during the night of June 5th, 1944.

On the evening of June 5th, we went to bed as usual. In the middle of the night, our father woke us and we then heard the loud bellowing of the aircraft that passed overhead. With the opening of the window to the 1st story room, we could see paratroopers descending, that would be landing in the fields surrounding the village. We saw them silently enter the village, hugging the walls of the houses as they entered.
During the previous week, there had been Germans stationed in the village, but they departed some days ago, and there remained no one except the civilians. Nobody exited their home, and we returned to bed and slept until morning.
At daybreak, we left the village, as we did not want to remain in the house next to the road, except for my father, who remained home the whole time.
For four days we wandered across fields between Houlbec and Bergeries searching for our animals that had run away. At night, we slept in barns on hay, with other civilians. We returned to the house at the end of 5 days to find our father there. During the course of our search, we found dead paratroopers in the ditches, as well as many dead animals. At the castle in Neuville, the horses were dead at the gates. Without doubt, the horses had been trying to get out through the gates, as their legs were between the bars.

Upon returning to our village, we helped our neighbor to take care of and milk his animals. He had taken the precaution of locking in his animals so that they could not run away. Additionally, at this moment, my sister was injured by the blast of an artillery shell that the Germans had fired from Ecausseville.

Later the Americans replaced the Germans at my parent's café. They accompanied us in the pastures when we went to milk the animals. We watched their convoys pass that came from Cherbourg, and they threw us oranges.

Denise Lecourtois     (April 13, 2004)

Translation from French by Thad J. Russell