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Nonant-le-Pin (French pronunciation: [nɔnɑ̃ lə pɛ̃] ⓘ) is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.
- Thousands Dead and An Emergency Camp
- Safer Within
- Foucarville
- Organising Prisoners of War
- The French Take (Some) Control
- Shortage of Land, and Food
- May 1945 – An Army of POWs
- French POWs Meet Their German Counterparts
- Repatriation
- Some References
Nonant-le-Pin is on the southern line of the ‘Pocket’ and here thousands of exhausted, hungry, frightened, furious and relieved enemy soldiers were herded, into a makeshift camp. There are no traces of the camp now, but in 1944 it stood on the site of one of the many horse racetracks around the village. By the time the ‘Pocket’ closed, many roads a...
In the camps the Allies attempted to separate the fanatical Nazis who could cause trouble (and who they wanted to interrogate) from the less ideologically motivated prisoners. Short of guards, an Allied soldier recalls driving around one camp occasionally shouting ‘Halt!’ and shooting his gun in the air to give the impression they were coming down ...
By tiny Foucarville in the Manche a camp was set up that would grow to cover 100 hectares. It was built to process prisoners before they were shipped over to the UK (and then many on to the USA). In fifteen months, nearly 100,000 troops and officers passed through Foucarville, then under the command of Colonel Kennedy. The camp, known as ‘Continent...
Inside the camps each section would have a prisoner designated ‘compound leader’. The compound police and kitchen personnel were all prisoners. The Allied camp commanding officer would also work with a Lagerfuhrer, a prisoner who would liaise with influential camp figures; physicians, chaplains and legally required prisoner representatives. Tension...
By the autumn of 1944, the Allies decided to stop sending Prisoners of War to the United States and Britain and set up more permanent confinement camps. Within the camps several hundred specialist labour companies were set up, each employing 150-300 PoWs. The military would employ PoWs from these companies to work outside the camps in construction,...
The Allies needed to feed their Prisoners of War in line with the terms of the 1929 Geneva Convention and partly to avoid reprisals against their own prisoners held in Germany. However the French people were surviving on severely rationed food and did not appreciate seeing the Allies give PoWs ‘too much’ fruit, chocolate and cigarettes. The PoW cam...
By the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, 250,000 Prisoners of War were living in Normandy, almost as many as the German occupying army between 1940-1944. Seeing the Allies employ PoWs, the French began to put pressure on their government to give control of the PoWs to France. The French government formally requested the transfer of 1.75 million...
French prisoners of war repatriated from Germany, and German controlled areas in 1945, played a surprising role in Franco-German relations back in France. The returnees were mostly sympathetic towards enemy PoWs. There were a few instances of bitterness and revenge, but more often those returning understood how the Prisoners must feel; they either ...
The last Normandy Prisoners of War were repatriated in 1948, to an uncertain future. The camps were all flattened. Although the strongest memories of the enemy in Normandy are of German occupation from 1940-1944, Prisoners of War were an important part of Normandy’s recover. Thousands of PoWs helped rebuild a devastated Normandy; repairing building...
BBC People’s War account by a German PoW and by Joan McGuire. German and French PoWsduring and after WW2, by Valentin Schneider Archaeological dig of a WW2 PoW campin Normandy
La commune de Nonant-le-Pin est située entre pays d'Auge, pays d'Ouche, campagne d'Alençon et plaine d'Argentan. Son bourg est à 5 km à l'ouest du Merlerault, à 12 km au sud-ouest de Gacé, à 12 km au nord de Sées, à 22 km à l'est d'Argentan et à 35 km au nord d'Alençon [1]. Situation de la commune.
Discover our heritage of Nonant-le-Pin. Geographical location, history, traditions, gastronomic specialities, unmissable sights to see, activities for… Liven up your holidays!
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Visit Nonant-le-Pin in the Orne department (Normandy region) of France: tourist information, places to visit and attractions near Nonant-le-Pin
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The town of Nonant-le-Pin is located in the township of Le Merlerault part of the district of Argentan. The area code for Nonant-le-Pin is 61310 (also known as code INSEE), and the Nonant-le-Pin zip code is 61240.
