Cadre Noir defending the bridge in Saumur

[Locke]

Hello,

I am looking for info regarding the Cadre Noir defence of the bridge in Saumur. I was looking on the net, but couldn't come up with more than that it took place from 17. - 20. July 1940.
(the info can be also in french language)


Thanks in advance,
Polona

[David Lehmann]

Hello,

At the moment I don't have technically the time to wrote a complete summary I am working on too many things also about the topic French 1939/1940 army

What I can advice among several books concerning the topic is for example this one :

http://www.alapage.com/get_img.php?cgi= ... 258034760r

by Patrick De Gmeline (1993)
ISBN : 2258034760
I have red this one and I find it good and well written. The author has also written about the corps francs for example.

There are also other books but I don't know them :

La bataille des cadets de Saumur
by Dominique Lormier (2003)
ISBN : 2847020268

etc.

A view of Saumur in 1939 with its bridge (source e-bay) :



By clicking on the underlined links here you will have access to some photos of locations where part of the battles took place :
http://perso.club-internet.fr/gennes/si ... taille.htm

I have a short summary independent from the book, in French, on a .doc file but it has not be written by me. I can send it to you if you give me your email in a PM for example.

memorial for the KIA at Gennes :
http://perso.club-internet.fr/gennes/si ... /memo2.jpg

Regards,

David

[David Lehmann]

Hello,

I "goggled" a bit and found that :

http://www.egroelle.com/cadets.htm

JUNE 1940
The British were being evacuated at Dunkirk. The Germans had just crossed the Seine and in a few days would reach the Loire, the last obstacle to total invasion. The School of Cavalry at Saumur had received a command to retreat to Montauban but Colonel Michon, commander of the Calvary School and including the officers, instructors and the reserve did not want to retreat without a fight. It involved the honor of the school and the prestige of the Cavalry.
At the request of Colonel Michon, the retreat was cancelled and the school was left alone defending the Loire on a front of almost 40 kilometers from the bridge of Gennes to the bridge at Montsoreau.

Realistically, it would have required at least two divisions to repel the attack of the German army on such a front. By an ironic coincidence and unknown to the Saumur defenders the officers of the attacking German panzer division were trained in Hanover at the German equivalent of the Saumur Calvary School. The difference was that the unit attacking was battle hardened and the French force was mainly made up of men who had never experienced battle. It was with 1,500 Officers, instructors, pupils and 700 men of the reserve that they intended to hold for several days in order to slow down the advance of the Germans who were well equipped with 18,000 men.

All available armament and hardware was recovered and repaired. The total defense armament consisted 35 machine guns (some manufactured in 1915), 110 automatic rifles, ten 25 mm guns, four 81 mm mortars, seven 60 mm mortars, five small tanks, three armored cars, two 75 mm artillery pieces which were used for student instruction and so old they dared not fire them.
A significant problem was that the roads and bridges were always crammed with refugees trying to make the Loire crossing - cars, trucks, horse-drawn carts, wheelbarrows, hearses, fire engines, all carrying pitiful human baggage. Some of the refugees were spys or sympathetic to capitulation with the Germans. In trying to control the traffic the young cadets had to endure insults and jeers.

THE STRATEGY
Initially, the French strategy was to defend the bridges and to retreat only at the last minute so as to not block the retreat of any allied troops who might still be fighting on the north side of the Loire. There were four places at which the Loire could be crossed; over the bridges at Gennes (2 bridges) and Montsoreau at each end of the sector, at Saumur itself (2 bridges) and towards Montsoreau again at a railroad viaduct.

Lieutenant Trastour and his brigade would defend the bridge of Mont­Soreau.

Lieutenant de La Lance and his pupils would defend the railroad viaduct, which crosses the Loire to the east of Saumur.

Lieutenant Perin would defend the south bridge section of the Island of Saumur.

The Brigade of Lieutenant de Buffevent was stationed on the Island of Saumur to defend the island and to supervise the destruction of the northern bridge at the proper time.

Lastly, Lieutenant Desplats was placed in the l'Ile of Gennes to defend the bridge at Gennes.

These brigades were on the extreme point of the sacrifice, because it would probably be necessary to blow up the bridges behind them. All knew it and were ready to make a heroic last stand.

The Loire was defended between the bridges by the Brigades du Train and service elements which acted as rear support and to be ready to reinforce the most threatened points.

ENGAGEMENT
In the evening of June 18, Colonel Michon was notified that strong columns of German armored and motorized elements were at Castle-Lavallieres and moving fast towards Saumur. The alarm was sounded.

On June 19 at 0015 hrs, the first German tanks arrived at the northern bridge of Saumur but the soldiers under Buffevent were there and in a few minutes EAR Hochin, a gunner, destroyed 7 enemy tanks and 2 armored cars.

A few moments after the arrival of the enemy, Buffevent blew up the northern bridge to the island of Saumur.

At 0200 hours, the bridge of Montsoreau was destroyed and 3 hours after that the viaduct which the defenders retreated from after the arrival of the enemy. On the afternoon of the 19th the Germans arrived at the northern bridge of Gennes forcing Lieutenant Desplats to retreat.

Contact was made all along the line and the Germans began bombarding Saumur and its access roads from the south with mortar and artillery. During June 19 and 20 over 2000 shells hit Saumur

By evening, significant hostile elements were gathered opposite Saumur, and Colonel Michon, fearing that the defenders of the Island of Saumur would be over run, blew up the southern bridge of the Island of Saumur, thus isolating the Buffevent Brigade on the island and cutting off any possible retreat for them.

It was the Desplats Brigade in Gennes, which was the first unit attacked by the enemy trying around 2100 hours to cross the Loire on boats. The engagement, preceded by a heavy bombardment of the French position was very severe until 2330 hrs but the enemy was pushed back everywhere.

From the very start of the action, the defenders had blown up the southern bridge of the Island, isolating themselves voluntarily.

The enemy was determined and on June 20, at 0400 hours, it started the bombardment again on Gennes, Saumur and the access paths of these cities.

At 0450 hrs, new bombardment began again on Gennes. Then, by utilizing many armored boats, the enemy managed to gain a foothold on the Island of Gennes whose defenders, after an intense hand to hand battle were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

In the morning, in spite of the defensive reaction, the Germans were able to establish a small beachhead on the south bridge of the Loire and to infiltrate the woods between Cunault and Gennes.

A vigorous counter-attack pushed back the adversary for a short time, but overpowered under the number and incurring serious losses, all the elements of the School defending the area of Gennes, received the command to retreat at about 2100 hrs from Colonel Michon.

The operation in the Gennes sector was finished. The sacrifice of Lieutenant Desplats in defending the Island with a spirit of no retreat, the initiative, perspicacity and coolness of Captain Foltz defending Gennes until the end, the selfless attitude of Lieutenant Roimarnier and Bonnin who were killed or lost in action, the spirit of resistance and the initiative of Lieutenant Maure and Lofficier who maintained their position until the retreat command, the courage shown by the school cadets who performed brilliantly even though it was their first experience under fire all contributed to a fierce resistance against an enemy with superior numbers and firepower.

In Saumur, the Germans established a fire base on the northern bank of the Loire made up of camouflaged tanks, which crossfired between the viaduct and Beaulieu with their machine-guns. At 0510 hrs, enemy boats tried the crossing of the Loire. The majority of them were killed but they eventually managed to make a landing east of Petit-Puy.

Lieutenant de Buffevent and his men were on the Island of Saumur and the Germans did not dare to attack them. Buffevent could not wait and decided to attack the Germans on the Right Bank. He, with some EAR crossed the Loire on 2 boats and landed in the middle of the Germans on the Right Bank. Heroic combat ensued in which Buffevent was lost in action and only one wounded EAR survived.

Thanks to their superior firepower and in particular thanks to their artillery, the Germans continued to advance on the bridge and make progress in direction of Varrains-Chace.

With the assistance of 2 companies of St-Maixentals and some tanks, a counterattack at 1215 hrs succeeded in temporarily breaching the line and to recover some of our encircled elements.

At the bridge of Montsoreau, the Germans tried to surprise a small group of French fighters located on the northern bank of the Loire. This action succeeded in causing the French to retreat after a short battle under heavy fire. Before retreating they blow up the bridge at Montsoreau.

During the days of the 19th and 20th, probable hostile civil elements on the southern bank of the Loire attacked the post offices from the rear, which made defense difficult. Our elements broke off contact at 2000 to 2200 hours after receiving a general retreat order.

At 1600 hrs, General Pichon, because of overall situation on the Loire, and concerned about the possibility of creating an unnecessary massacre in Saumur of all the elite of young Cavalry, asked the commander of each Sector, through an intermediary liaison Officer, to consider a retreat operation in direction of Vienne. This operation was agreed upon and commenced at 2130 hrs. In every sector; Gennes, Saumur and Montsoreau, the losses were heavy, all the reserves were engaged and the lack of artillery was heavy disadvantage, but on the whole the sector was holding.

At this stage of the battle it was acknowledged that if the hardware and ammunition resources were reduced to nothing, the will and energy resources would not allow continuation of the resistance. The commanders of the Cavalry had made known its intention to gather the School in the area of Montauban on July 10. Thirty officers and pupils launched out in anticipation of breaching the enemy lines and regaining their units and as many men as possible.

The School of Cavalry claimed it an honor to take part in the defense of the Loire in the sector of Saumur and to affirm there, by their actions, the value of military and moral teaching that, since its origin, has never ceased instilling in the Cavalry Cadre.

It fought on the l9th, 20th and 2lst of June to the extreme limit of its resources, inflicting severe losses on the enemy through self-trial and unselfish acts of heroism. This action will be registered in the records of Cavalry as a worthy page of its glorious past.

Regards,

David

[David Lehmann]

Try also these ones, including one in English language :

"Le dernier Carrousel. Défense de Saumur 1940"
by Robert Milliat (1945)

"For honour alone: The cadets of Saumur in the defence of the Cavalry School, France, June 1940"
by Roy MacNab (1988)
ISBN: 0709033311
editor R. Hale

Regards,

David

[Locke]

Thank you very much, David

Best,
Polona