In the previous vignette I went a bit ahead of myself. When Uncle David came to the Lecleres’ house, it was 1945, after the end of the war, at least in our region. But before that, between 1942, when I came to the Lecleres, and 1944 to 1945, France was occupied by the Nazis, (depending on the specific part of France). You probably know about the Allies’ invasion, made famous, among other stories by the assault on Omaha Beach (and other beaches) on June 6, 1944, popularly known as D-Day. The Allies were the US, the UK, and Canada. Their armies landed on a strip of beaches in Normandy, not all that far from St. Aubin. It was probably the most monumental battle in the history of man. D-Day defies a short description, but I have written a bit more about it in an essay on this website, called D-Day plus Chewing Gum and Cigarettes.

St. Aubin lies in a crook of the Seine River, across from a larger town called Elbeuf, on the western side of the Seine. As the Allies made progress, pushing the German forces inexorably eastward, from the west of France, they, the Germans, were faced with crossing the river. As you can imagine, it’s not easy to move an army, with all its vehicles, trucks, tanks, etc, especially when the bridges have been blown up. The Germans wanted to cross the Seine and go to Germany to defend it, but only a fraction of their army was able to do so. The rest were killed or captured.

So, there were pitched battles near and in Elbeuf and St. Aubin that are described in the second edition of my memoir. I was there when this was happening, but I was only about seven years old, and not much of the events registered. But eventually, the Germans were chased out of our “neighborhood”. Parts of the American and Canadian armies were the forces that did so, but as they neared the western border of the Seine, the American army was diverted northward, and only the Canadian army was left to “claim” our town. The 4th Canadian Armored Division crossed on a pontoon bridge over the Seine on August 28th, 1944.