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Harry Ree · 02-10-2008, 10:55 PM

An interesting revisit to the Morvan.The landscape is so beautiful, it is now the Parc Regional du Morvan.John Dray portrays the area as it was and is now.How can I pick up the video?

If anyone wants to know what it was like operating behind enemy lines, then Ian Wellsted's account "SAS with the Maquis" is the book to read.3 months of tense operations and courage.

In 1996 whilst on holiday in Burgundy we spent some time in the Morvan and found the various memorials to the Maquis Bernard, the Maquis Socrate and the SAS.After we returned home,I stumbled across Ian's book and realised that he had been heavily involved in the operations at the time.I was able to contact him via his publisher and passed on the photographs I had taken and my observations relating to the operations.Surprisingly he wrote to me from New Zealand and added the comment about Socrate (cover name for Capitaine Georges Leyton) who was killed on 10 August 1944 when the Maquis was ambushed by German forces and now lies at Cussy en Morvan cemetery.

Ian passed the following comment to me on Socrate, "Socrate-a fearless fighter and a true patriot".Bernard was the cover name of Jacques Chateaigneal,the leader of Maquis Bernard who fell in action on 24 June 1944 aged 24 years at La Verrerie.He is remembered in the Montsauche area where his maquis operated.

In 1997 we spent two weeks around the Burgundy region and were able to visit most of the sites mentioned by Ian.On our trips we found a firm favourite drink in Marc, a home brewed eau de vie which was so popular among the country people at the time and now available commercially.At Ouroux is the estaminet outside which the SAS drank Marc along with the landlady and a peasant farmer with the Germans within "spitting distance".The estiminet is now no more but is a private house, its distinctive corner stones making it instantly recognisable.

I see the visit to the Anglo Maquis cemetery at Montsauche has again deceived the traveller.When I visited the area and saw the cemetery with a RAF crew interred there, I could not accept it that the RAF/CWGC would allow burials to be maintained in a remote area plus the fact that the graves were identified by temporary markers.I then ascertained that the crew remains had been transferred about 200 miles west to the Nantes Pontr du Cens Cemetery. I think this was done about 1961 when this No 640 Squadron crew remains (who were lost on 11 August 1944 when on a raid to the Dijon railway yards) were transferred to Nantes.

I noted that a international traveller made the same assumption in an article on the region for a travel magazine for it is not indicated at the cemetery that the graves are empty.

02-10-2008, 10:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
Harry Ree Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 985	An interesting revisit to the Morvan.The landscape is so beautiful, it is now the Parc Regional du Morvan.John Dray portrays the area as it was and is now.How can I pick up the video? If anyone wants to know what it was like operating behind enemy lines, then Ian Wellsted's account "SAS with the Maquis" is the book to read.3 months of tense operations and courage. In 1996 whilst on holiday in Burgundy we spent some time in the Morvan and found the various memorials to the Maquis Bernard, the Maquis Socrate and the SAS.After we returned home,I stumbled across Ian's book and realised that he had been heavily involved in the operations at the time.I was able to contact him via his publisher and passed on the photographs I had taken and my observations relating to the operations.Surprisingly he wrote to me from New Zealand and added the comment about Socrate (cover name for Capitaine Georges Leyton) who was killed on 10 August 1944 when the Maquis was ambushed by German forces and now lies at Cussy en Morvan cemetery. Ian passed the following comment to me on Socrate, "Socrate-a fearless fighter and a true patriot".Bernard was the cover name of Jacques Chateaigneal,the leader of Maquis Bernard who fell in action on 24 June 1944 aged 24 years at La Verrerie.He is remembered in the Montsauche area where his maquis operated. In 1997 we spent two weeks around the Burgundy region and were able to visit most of the sites mentioned by Ian.On our trips we found a firm favourite drink in Marc, a home brewed eau de vie which was so popular among the country people at the time and now available commercially.At Ouroux is the estaminet outside which the SAS drank Marc along with the landlady and a peasant farmer with the Germans within "spitting distance".The estiminet is now no more but is a private house, its distinctive corner stones making it instantly recognisable. I see the visit to the Anglo Maquis cemetery at Montsauche has again deceived the traveller.When I visited the area and saw the cemetery with a RAF crew interred there, I could not accept it that the RAF/CWGC would allow burials to be maintained in a remote area plus the fact that the graves were identified by temporary markers.I then ascertained that the crew remains had been transferred about 200 miles west to the Nantes Pontr du Cens Cemetery. I think this was done about 1961 when this No 640 Squadron crew remains (who were lost on 11 August 1944 when on a raid to the Dijon railway yards) were transferred to Nantes. I noted that a international traveller made the same assumption in an article on the region for a travel magazine for it is not indicated at the cemetery that the graves are empty.