The first Americans in Vierville: Victorine Houyvet

HOUYVET Victorine: in 1944, 31 years old, single teacher residing at Vierville school

"on June 6, 7 a.m...."
"I saw my first American soldier, for the first time on June 6, 1944 at about 7:00 a.m. The door to the hall of the house had jumped by the bombings and I had not slept the night. I was wearing a skirt when an American showed up at the door! I did not know yet that it was landing because I had not seen the boats on the sea, in fact we did not see the sea of the school. We didn't realize. I was alone because my colleague was up there.
He was right outside the door and did not come in because he had to be afraid to find Germans; he was the first French woman he saw. He had just climbed from the crossroads and had to think that I was a German woman because he believed that all the civilians had left 5 km behind and we had all stayed!
"What is this big scogriffe? "
He was tall, very tall, khaki, armed like all the other soldiers. He didn't say anything, I raised my arms in the air because I was astonished and I was wondering, "What is this big scogriffe?", because the landing was a good talk, but we didn't think it would be at home.
"He took his gun and shot..."
He took his revolver and he shot believing that I was a German woman; fortunately I was in front of my bedroom door and I could make a gap without it, he was killing me!
The bullet went to get lost in front of the window. He didn't go any further than the threshold, he was afraid some Germans were in there...
It wasn't a pleasant first contact!
"We'll have to get through it."
The top, I ran away, I found my colleague up there and we got under the stairs in the shelter, because it was ducking all around. We put cushions on our heads; we kissed each other because we thought, "We'll have to go!"
When there was a moment of calm, we left our hiding place and went to the post offices next door in their cellar. There was no way we could introduce ourselves to the Americans because we were afraid, given the first contact. We stayed, we were sheltered because our neighbors' cellar was backed by the garden that was overlooking the school yard of more than 3 m: it was really a safe bulwark against the German bombings that came from Formigny.
So we stayed there, we could see a small slot of German prisoners who were taken to the school yard. We saw all this, that's all we saw and we didn't dare to introduce ourselves. It lasted!
"We'd risk an eye" (on the evening of 6)
We must have gone out. One could risk an eye in a moment of calm: the whole road was full of tanks, but huge tanks as one could not know that it could exist. A weapon like that, we'd never seen that, it was full, full, full of roads.
We spent the night on the pile of wood in the cellar, we didn't sleep, of course, it ducked from time to time; there were moments of calm and we heard fighting around. We heard and we didn't know what it was, German or American, because we were hiding.

"First contact"

On Tuesday, therefore, at one point, an American came, he entered the cellar; at that time, they had brought their prisoners elsewhere. We've met. He asked us to drink, but we had to drink before him because he was afraid, and he gave us a soap and chocolate. First contact; and we went out on the road, because at that time the Americans had found more civilians; there, of course, we talked more or less with them. The Canadians especially spoke, it was absolutely funny for us because they talked like our grandmothers, with the same accent really very few people still spoke that patois, my grandmother, from time to time said the "caire" for the chair. It was quite weird for us, we had gone beyond that point, to find those words!

"On Wednesday, it was ducking... "
On Wednesday, so we still haven't slept; we obviously stayed 3 days without sleeping; at last on Wednesday we didn't dare to go back because the Americans were ducking through the windows because they said "there are". They were told that there were no more Germans, that here it was school, but it didn't matter, they were ducking! We could see all the furniture destroyed with rifles. We couldn't get into the houses anyway, so we lived outside the door. It was Wednesday, we thought we were done, that the landing was successful! The Americans were not entirely of that opinion, they expected a German counterattack. They had therefore recovered the few remaining civilians from the village, and had taken them to the school yard, under the meadow. They had to direct us to take us to shelter from the cliffs, to the sea because they thought we would have been safe from the German counterattack: We didn't have time for that!
"The Counterattack"
The counterattack came shortly after the civilians were gathered under the preau where we stayed. Then it fell, it fell into the garden that all the vegetables were dug up: potatoes, carrots, everything in the garden.
There were 5 Americans who were in the school yard, sitting to make the coffee, unfortunately for them, they were right in front of the small door that gave in the garden. They were killed, all five of them in front of our eyes.
The postman and his wife, who were with us, wanted to go to the paper post as well, they were very injured: he died two days later and she stayed in the hospital for several months.
The sheets of the meadow were removed above our heads and we, we had nothing, always protected by the wall of the garden that saved our lives!
It went on the school, the school was all crumbled, the tables, the books; we were always saved by the garden wall, yet the courtyard was not wide! That's great.
Everything was burning in the crossroads because, I think, there was a truck full of explosives and ammunition that jumped off by the bombardments of Formigny. They were just targeting the crossroads where we were! We were really well located! Oh, if we hadn't had that garden wall, we'd been there!

"Save yourself! "

The station burned, the school burned, the post office burned, and then there was a lot of damage, of course: everywhere it was blazing, everywhere! And then an American who was at the crossroads told us that this was the most terrible moment of landing and added: "Save yourself as you can! I can't do anything for you anymore! You have to leave this corner absolutely! You have to go!"
So in the panic, some went towards the sea, the others went up, on the side of Vierville - St Laurent, including me, we ran, we crossed dead, because there were dead and then debris; we went into a ditch at the farm "Laronche". We didn't know what we were doing at the time. There were even families that were scattered. We broke into this ditch. We were not bad, and we stayed at night; there were some who were afraid...

"the next morning, we didn't find anything! "

The next morning it seemed calm, we went out to see what the events were, what our business had become: we obviously found nothing but ashes; if, I found my kettle, the only thing that was near the pump where I watered my strawberries on the four, on the Sunday morning I had left it there; otherwise we found nothing, nothing seen.
We were gone with slippers, not even well dressed, nothing, not even a bag, not a memory, nothing not a jewel, nothing! "

Interview of 8/12/93 in Bayeux
Collected and transcribed by Thomas Sorin , Olivier Leyour