The Resistance in Vierville sur Mer
Désiré Lemière lived in the hamlet of Fosses Taillis, very close to the border of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Originally a farmer, he had little land, and the Germans having requisitioned part of it, he then became factor in St-Laurent, which allowed him to circulate everywhere without attracting attention.
Since January 1943, he has been part of the "Groupe Alliance" which collected military intelligence and transmitted it to the Allies. His local group was eventually discovered by the Germans and he was arrested on May 5, 1944 by the Gestapo, then shot on June 6, 1944 at Caen Prison.
To commemorate his memory, the street of the municipal subdivision in the Guerberue district bears his name.
Désiré Lemière was the maternal grandfather of the current mayor of Vierville.
Robert Boulard
The Municipal Council gave the name of Robert Boulard to the street that serves the subdivision "Les Embruns de la Liberté" (also known as the Dumont subdivision, near the beginning of the rue du Hamel au Prêtre),
Robert Boulard was man in Trévières and he lived in Vierville, in the hamlet of Vacqueville.
Like Désiré Lemière, he was an intelligence officer of the "Groupe Alliance", and he was also arrested on May 5, 1944.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, he was shot at Caen prison, at the same time as all the other prisoners of the Gestapo in Caen. Their bodies were transported by truck to an unknown place in the afternoon and were never found. They are probably still buried somewhere not far from the city, because the truck that was carrying the bodies made several short-term shuttles.
Charles Olard
Charles Olard was receiver of the Post Office in Saint-Laurent and lived in Vierville in the hamlet of Fosses-Taillis, like Désiré Lemière.
He was, like the others, arrested on May 5, 1944, but appears to have been released before June 6, 44.
The "Alliance" resistance network
The "Alliance" Network was founded in 1940 by Commandant Loustanau-Lacau. It covered in principle all of France. From the end of 1942 and the total occupation of France, it was separated into several zones, the West ("Farm" sector) being entrusted to Jean Roger called "Sainteny". Sainteny had ties to Vierville (where he owned a villa by the sea) and also to Aignerville, he had appointed a manager for Calvados: Robert Douin (called "Civette") who lived in Caen but moved frequently throughout Bessin.
The sector of Bessin was under the responsibility of M. Couliboeuf (called "Bison noir"), teacher in Formigny, and had an operator radio Rodriguez (called "Pie") and a mailbox in Bayeux trained with 2 teachers: Melles Julia Picot and Germaine Limeul.
3 intelligence research groups were then recruited:
1/ In Bayeux,
2/ In Port-en-Bessin, a group led by Paul Bernier (called "Tigris") and Georges Thomine (called "Cachalot") and which included the 6 agents: Pierre Cardon, Edouard Cardon, Léon Cardon, Léon Payen, Gaston Chauvin and Auguste Thomine.
3/ In Vierville, St-Laurent and Trévières, a group led by Désiré Lemière (called "Chordeille"), with Robert Boulard, Charles Olard and Albert Anne (blacksmith in Asnières), a group in which the first 3 were postmen and lived in our village. This team observed and transmitted precise information, taking advantage of the movement facilities of postmen who could talk to residents without attracting attention.
The neighboring sector Villers-Bocage was led by the radio Jean Caby (called "Emouchet"), with 8 intelligence officers.
Other agents were in the sectors of Caen and Ouistreham.
The Alliance network was not the only one to carry out resistance activities in Bessin and Calvados. All these networks were completely separate and they ignored each other for security reasons: network OCM, which mainly did intelligence (Guillaume Mercader), network of the National Front which did not do intelligence but propaganda, network Mithridate dependent on British services (Marcel Aulombard in Bayeux in particular); movement Libération Nord which also did intelligence (Joseph and Arthur Poitevin in Port-en-Bessin).
In total there are 135 people registered in Bessin as resistance fighters (179 according to another count), including 15 to 20 for "Alliance".
These agents came from all classes of society, in proportion to their actual distribution. Their motivations were diverse: rejection of the natural enemy, Army cadres refusing the armistice and the Vichy regime, from 1943 refusal of the STO in Germany, sometimes communist or anti-fascist ideology. Many have committed themselves without even knowing the organization that used them, secrecy remaining essential for security. All these men had a current of sympathy among the population of Bessin, which facilitated their work with the necessary discretion.
The information sought concerned the entire German organization, and in particular the large coastal batteries: Longues, the Hoc, Maisy, the defenses along the coast, fuel depots, etc.
The transmission of information was generally done by radio (in the case of the Alliance network), but also by carrier pigeons (case of the CMO).
Each network transmitted to England what it had been able to gather. The results were exploited in London and carefully intersected with aerial reconnaissance. The heaviness of this treatment sometimes led to delays and errors. But overall, the effectiveness of French networks has been recognized.
The Alliance network, like most resistance networks, was hard hit by repression. Despite all the precautions, it was difficult to avoid infiltrations by French agents working on behalf of the Germans. As for radios, they were easily spotted by radiogoniometry, which forced them to move constantly and at very fast cadences.
In the Alliance du Calvados network, the dark period began on March 14, 1944 with the arrest in Paris of a liaison agent of Robert Douin (Jean Truffaut called Tadorne, who had important documents on the network and who had met Robert Douin on March 9).
Subsequently, on March 17, Robert Douin was arrested in Caen, Georges Thomine was arrested in Port-en-Bessin, Jean Caby was arrested in Villers-Bocage.
On May 4, almost the entire Villers-Bocage group was arrested.
On May 5, it was the turn of the Vierville-Saint-Laurent-Trévières group, which was also arrested in full: Désiré Lemière, Albert Anne, Robert Boulard and Charles Olard.
These arrests were usually made by French people working for the Gestapo.
All were questioned under torture in Caen, 4 were released, 1 deported and 16 shot on June 6, 1944 at Caen prison, in the panic that seems to have seized the Germans on the morning of the landing. Their remains were never found.
At that time, in the absence of a landing, their fate would have been deportation to the death camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Struthof...) where the chances of survival were low.