Oops wrong town...

[Mike R]

I have come across a description of an incident in a book I am reading. The incident in question involves a village by the name of Oradour-sur-Glade.

"Here the SS Division, Das Reich, had, as a reprisal for the killing of a German officer, driven the women and children into the church and then set the village on fire. As the men and boys emerged from the flames, they mowed them down with machineguns. Afterwards they blew up the church and some six hundred women and children in it. It was unfortunate, they admitted, that there were two villages named Oradour and that they had inadvertently picked the wrong one. Still, reprisals had been carried out."

-Rommel: The Desert Fox
-by Desmond Young
-p.182-3

This is the first time I have heard of this particular incident. Did this really happen? Did the Germans really get two villages mixed up and carry out reprisals against the wrong one? Does anyone know anything about this?

-Mike

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

The massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane did happen, if that is what you mean. As for whether Das Reich messed up, I wouldn't know.

[tomalbright]

For the best study of this atrocity, see the following website:

http://www.oradour.btinternet.co.uk/

[Cantankerous]

For the best study of this atrocity, see the following website:

http://www.oradour.btinternet.co.uk/

This weblink is no longer active. Info about the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre is available at this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-s ... e_massacre