Christiane was 14, in 1943, when Comète opened this escape route. Geoff Cooper, a former Royal Air Power pilot, is passionate about this tale. “Between 1941 and 1943 the smugglers took the so-referred to as Bidassoa path, via Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Socoa, Urrugne. But in 43 the Germans dismantled this network. “We have to open one more way to the border. Marie and Pierre Elhorga, “contemplating leaders” of the local resistance, will organize the Espelette route.
Commemoration in development
The Mates of the Comète network organizes a very long weekend in memory of the European resistance firm. From Thursday there will be tributes and formal moments, among Anglet and Bayonne. Amid the distinguished company there was a powerful delegation from the Royal Air Power (RAF), together with Maria Byford, the latest maximum ranking officer of the British Air Power. On Saturday and Sunday the marches will stick to the smugglers’ routes, from the Larre inn, in Anglet, to the border, by means of Espelette. A commemorative plaque will be inaugurated on Sunday at the website of Ihi Lepo.
Astonished pains
Pierre Elhorga is a previous customs officer. He understands his globe of him… In the village he mobilizes Pierre Etchegoyen, Jean Elissondo, the brothers Pierre and Battita Aguerre. Tranquil peasants have discrete hobbies: “They had been smugglers,” summarizes Christiane Saldias. From smugglers to smugglers, there is only a distinction in “items”.
I was on my way to the Arcangues bakery. The clerk, Louis Goujon, caught a information in the bread.
The Larre farm will serve as a hub for France’s friendly aviators to be evacuated across the Iberian Peninsula. They have been awaiting directions at Angloye’s boardinghouse. These arrived in the sort of two-kilo loaves. “I made use of to go to the Arcangues bakery. The clerk, Louis Goujon, caught a concept in the bread. He was usually in Basque. ” This sort of day, these time, this kind of place ”… ”The indications led to the smugglers. “They should not have arrive to the inn. Never compromise Aunt Marthe, really don’t grill the strategic point.
under the carpet
The Germans drank and less than their toes had been the English aviators
The Germans set up the kommandantur in Bassussarry. 3 kilometers by bicycle, neighbors. They typically arrive and throw a person at the inn. “The Allied aviators slept in the bedrooms but when the Germans landed they hid in the cellar. There was a hatch in entrance of the bar, with a huge carpet on it. The Germans drank and beneath their toes were being the English aviators. The significant setting up has been converted into residences. The occupant of a person of them invitations into his living place. There is generally a carpet. And below it, we open up a now tiled hatch. “There he is! “
The outdated Larre inn is however very pleased, in the district of Sutar, in Anglet. Now its walls household flats. In just one of them there is nevertheless the cellar hatch exactly where the Allied aviators hid when the Germans arrived for a drink at the inn.
PP
Christiane Saldias hesitates to praise. The heroes had been the pilots, “those guys who arrived to battle with us to save us”. Moreover, the boy was not scared. “I was unconscious. “Not her father, who has a dim strategy of his daughter as a ‘shadow messenger’. “He was worried about me. He mumbled, he wanted me to cease. 1 working day two Germans show up on bicycles for a consume at Larre’s. “One of them took me in his arms. I am not telling you my father’s anger! “
https://www.youtube.com/observe?v=frI9hHBDv_
–
Rascal whistles
Only at the time did the young woman’s legs wobble. You have to deliver two aviators a package deal, dresses and shoes. “They had been in Gernika, area Saint-André, in Bayonne. I arrive and in there it was comprehensive of Germans at the desk. The parton, René Gachy, tells me “ you have them there ”. The two aviators, a Pole and a Canadian, were amid the Germans. This last swing ribald whistles to the minimal just one. He puts the box down and won’t inquire for alter. “I was fearful to dying.”
–
