We stayed a moment with some troopers, who told us to leave because it was too dangerous for us to stay. Then, at the risk of our lives, we went to search for some food and blankets for the night. We crossed the fields three kilometers from La Fière, going alongside the high hedgerows. We passed close to the American troopers, who were hidden under the hedgerows and in their foxholes. Around 1800 hours, we arrived at Les Noireterres, an area where there were no soldiers. Our neighbors there had helped a parachutist who had landed in a tree. After offering them his parachute, he had gone to join his buddies. The Americans were hearing a lot of firing on the La Fière side, and had no doubt that we were in the heart of the battle. They had dug a big shelter and covered it with bundles of firewood and earth. At night, all of us slept in this shelter. At his point there were 18 of us, all sitting on earthen benches carved out of either side of the shelter.

Throughout the night, we listened to shells crossing above our heads, hoping they would land a good distance away. None of us, and particularly the children, felt very reassured, but we were happy to all be together, a complete family without dead or wounded. Our house being in ruins, we stayed at Les Noireterres for several months. We went to milk what was left of our cows and feed the horses and calves that had survived the combat.

When the battle moved to the area around Pont-l’Abbé and La-Hayedu-Puits, we came back to La Fière and repaired the roof of the horse stable, the building which had suffered the least damage, and that is where we lived. The front of the Manoir had been blown away and destroyed.

We felt happy to be home. At the beginning we had to put up with some discomfort. The rats came out at night, climbing up on the table and our beds. We had been able to buy a stove, but when the weather was bad and we were unable to open the windows or door, we were unable to light the fire in it because it smoked so much.

This kind of life lasted for five years. The Manoir was finally rebuilt in the winter of 1949-1950. We moved back into the house for Christmas, where our family celebrated, happy, in spite of our misery, to all be back together without having suffered any dead or wounded, thanks to the American soldiers who fought to liberate and save us. ⁽¹⁾