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Memories of Michel Hardelay (2b) and Louis Colibeuf
The night and dawn of June 6 at the bus station at the Colibeufs
FOR MEMORY, these memories have been dispersed into several chapters chronologically classified:
Vierville under occupation (0)
The day before and before June 6th (1)
The night of 5 to 6 June and the dawn of 6 June (2)
At the same time, at the bus station of Vierville, at the Colibeufs (2bis)
The morning of 6 June, from 6 a.m. to 12 noon (3)
Afternoon and evening of June 6 (4)
The morning of 7 June (5)
At the bus station on June 7, at the Colibeufs (5b)
The afternoon and evening of June 7 with the bombardment of the crossroads (6)
On June 8, in the town of Vierville, with Captain Gardiner (of the Civil Affairs) (7)
June 8 at Than Manor and Vaumicel (8)
June 8 in Vacqueville (9)
June 9 and subsequent days (10)
(Night and dawn of 6 June)
"At the bus station there were six people: one household and four of their children, the two girls being younger than their brothers. The eldest daughter was married to a fisherman from Grandcamp and the eldest son, required by the STO, somewhere in Germany.
They had to share, for the night, the 4 rooms of this station, like all the small stations of the villages crossed by the narrow line between Le Molay-Littry and Isigny-sur-Mer. In addition there was an awning to house the travelers and, under part of the construction only, a cellar while this room was absent in all the constructions of the village. The family was fattening a pig outside in a pen next to Tom's zinc niche, the dog.
(The small train had stopped running around 1931 and the rails were removed shortly thereafter. He had been replaced by a bus leaving Bayeux and which, on a daily basis, had become weekly due to fuel and traffic restrictions.)
The father, Father Louis, combined all the communal functions, except that of a fosseur. In fact he was both a cantoner, a field guard and a civilian sonner. This function had caused him several months before, a bad surprise: in trying to stop the tingling of the big bell, the rope of it, worn at the place of its passage in the coulisseau of the oculus had yielded while it was 1m from the ground and it had broken the bones of the two ankles while falling. His wife had to replace him for a few weeks.
His wife, the "mother Jeanne", was responsible for the recording of the parcels, providing the tickets to the few travellers, and, in her hours free of small works. Very good cook (she was a pre-war cook at the Château de Vierville at Les Hausermann), known for her sauces, she was often asked for wedding meals, baptisms and communions."
Louis Colibeuf
"Precisely this night from 5 to 6 June she had taken the remains of the previous three meals to serve the last of the series in a farm in Vierville, and after cleaning and tidying her pots and other utensils, then taking a brief snack, she had left this farm at about 3h1/2.
The brouhaha of various conversations and songs had not allowed him to hear the various explosions of the night, but from the moment she came out she had a strange impression: something was not normal and was different from other nights. She found it difficult to analyze this change, and finally she found it to be the noise. She used to hear the characteristic noise of the allied aircraft and the deaf rumbling of the bombings, but that night there was a long hammering brought to her by the sea breeze.
(there was no sea breeze but a West wind force 3, the noise of the ships was spread mainly by water and had to be very special)
When she arrived at the station and instead of going to bed, she woke up her husband and told him of her fears. This one got up, dressed and went out. He also heard and immediately said, "These are ships and they are many." "But are they heading for us?" He preferred to wake up his children and ordered them to dress and then put in their small suitcases the strict necessities.
During this time the day gradually rose. He went out and into the valley's echelon looking at the sea, or the little one could see, majestic, a battleship marched at that time accompanied by two other war buildings.
Father Louis had begun to dig a shallow trench next to the station. He trained his family there. They were barely installed that a shell struck the pediment of a skylight of the castle (it was not restored and remained blinded, cut by the roof). A second shell reached the objective: the bell of the old chapel. They received pieces of stone in their trenches and decided to take refuge in their cellar, leaving dogs and pigs outside.
(June 6th in the day)
Jeanne heard the bells ringing when they fell down with the bell tower's arrow (in fact the bell tower was shot down at about 14:15) and said to her husband: "You will not have to ring the Angelus and probably those to come for a long time." She did not know at that moment that she would stay with her daughters in the cellar 36 hours, including almost 8 hours without Louis (see further on June 7 in Vierville), that she would see the workers of the Todt company (from their quartering at the castle, only those who were not Germans) who wanted to join the allies, then in the evening of the American soldiers with some armored"