National Council of the Resistance

Street sign, Amboise

On 27 May, in 1943, the National Council of the Resistance was set up.

After the fall of Paris on 14 June 1940, the Red Cross in Amboise served 50,000 meals a day to refugees fleeing the Germans. They were not successful. On 16 and 17 June the Luftwaffe shelled Amboise, Germans based camp on the Isle d’Or and bombarded the Château with mortars. French Resistance fighters blew up the bridge between the Island and the Chateau to prevent them crossing the Loire. The Germans built a pontoon bridge. Despite the machine gun battery stationed between the Town Hall and the Loire they took the town. They installed a machine gun in La Girardière in Chargé and shot French soldiers as they crossed the vineyards. The Germans occupied the farm and stayed there a few days before taking the Château and the remaining Resistance Fighters.

There is a plaque in rue de la Concorde commemorating them. The rebuilt bridge is named in honour of General Leclerc a French resistance officer. Émile Gounin, the then mayor of Amboise, a member of the Darius French Resistance has an avenue named after him.

Post by Pamela Photography by Mark.