And the MEEK Shall Inherit the Earth. Book One

Chapter Two The Oradour Horror

The next day Adolf Dickmann and 180 of his Battalion, driving ten lorries and two armoured vehicles, swept into Oradour-sur-Glane.  The mayor, who was also the local doctor - like his father before him and his son after him - and was well respected within the community, was questioned and said that he knew nothing of the kidnapping of an SS officer.  He was led through the town with the Town Crier, encouraging the inhabitants and their visitors, for this was a rations day, to come forth and produce their Identity Cards for a routine inspection.  He was then stood against a barn whilst the townsmen, all 190 of them, were placed into six groups in various locations.  They were again assured that this was just a routine inspection even as machine-guns were positioned opposite each group.  The rest of the village, consisting of 247 women and 205 children, were marched into the church.

"Haupsturmfuhrer," ordered Dickmann, "go and get your gramophone.  This is rations' day and these bastards are going to get their rations all right and their just desserts.  Let's celebrate with some music."

"Yes, Sturmbannfuhrer," said Kahn.  "What would you like?"

"I think something rousing - let's have Drei Lillien as we celebrate the memory and avenge the death of our brother in blood and fire, Kampfe."

As the loud military music filled the air Dickmann glared at the Frenchmen and burned inside with hatred, deep malice and disdain.  He recalled the words spoken by Kaiser Wilhelm ll in 1914, 'God has made us for civilizing the world.  Woe and death to all who resist my will'"

He pulled the pin from a hand-grenade and threw it through the window of a nearby house and just before it exploded screamed "FIRE!"

The six machine-gun crews of six men per Maschinengewehr 42 opened fire at 1,200 rounds per minute.  Within seconds the Frenchmen were skittled to the ground like nine-pins.  The soldiers at the church started to use the 452 women and children crammed into the edifice for target practice for their grenades and rifles then pushed a crate of explosives into the nave.  They lit the tapers to the box and ran from the building locking the doors behind them.  The women and children (the youngest only a week old) were locked inside and anyone trying to squeeze through the small, barred windows was immediately gunned down.  Only one woman, Madame Rouffanche, managed to climb on a stool behind the main altar and through a window, falling twenty feet onto broken glass and then hide in a vegetable plot, an eight-year old, red-haired boy named Roger Godfrin, who pretended to be dead (after the soldiers had killed his dog) and five men who hid in Laudy's barn, survived.

The village men could hear the screams of their loved ones drowning out their own and the chatter of machine-guns muffling the sound of the music.  Then the smell of acrid smoke filled with the revolting odour of burning flesh permeated the air.  All that the men could do was to writhe around helplessly on the ground, unable to stand or even kneel on their broken and bloodied legs.  They wriggled in agony and anguish, like eels grounded on a river bank, as the soldiers covered them with straw and firewood and proceeded to set fire to them.  Monsieur Brissaud, who'd lost a leg in the Great War, screamed out as he burnt to death, "Ah, the bastards have cut my other leg off!"

Then the gallant 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment (Der Fuhrer) integrated to the 2nd Waffen SS Panzer Division (Das Reich), looted and destroyed the buildings of a community which had existed peacefully for a thousand years.  

642 pairs of eyes for one pair of eyes; 642 sets of teeth for one set of teeth.

They temporarily spared one house, that of Monsieur Dupic, where some of them stayed the night.  The house was famous for its cellar filled with fine wines and it became the scene of a drunken orgy to celebrate the success of their mission.