Memorial at Gabaudet with plaque
The memorial on the (unmarked) minor road off the N140 South of Gramat at Gabaudet. It was here on the 8th June 1944 that a patrol from Das Reich surprised a large group of Resistants from the FFI and shot many of them dead. They then burned the farmhouse were they had been meeting. What is particularly significant about this event, is that Gabaudet was so far off the line of march that Das Reich was taking on its way to Normandy, that it could not have been only by chance that they arrived there. Gabaudet is a tiny hamlet; a long way down a narrow road and the only explanation that I can think of is that the Germans were informed about the gathering by French collaborators. The main inscription on the left hand white board reads, "8th June 1944. The barbaric Germans burnt the hamlet of Gabaudet. The FFI volunteers for the liberation of France were massacred with savage fury." On the right hand white board are the names of the Civilian dead: Denise Joutet, Antonin Joutet, Jaques Thamie, Antoine Gauthier. The other two sides of the memorial stone list the names of the FFI dead. Visible to the rear and right of the memorial stone is the plaque detailing the day's events in both French and English.
© Michael Williams: revised April 2007