Langeais Train Station Monument

This is the train carriage that memorializes the nine Americans among the forty Allied POWs that were killed or injured during a strafing attack on August 6 1944. These forty POWs which included Americans, British, Canadian, and soldiers from French colonies were loaded onto a train during the evening of August 2, 1944.  The train departed Rennes at 2:00 a.m. on August 3.  The following day, August 4th, at 10 a.m., General George S. Patton's Third Army entered Rennes and liberated the city along with the hospital and POW camp.  After reaching Nantes, the train traveled east along the Loire River passing through Angers until it reached Langeais.  There, on August 6, 1944, the train halted unable to advance due to the tracks being destroyed by an Allied bombing attack.  While stopped in the Langeais station, Allied fighter planes strafed the train and then returned the following day for a second attack.  Five Allied soldiers were severely wounded in the attack.  On August 8, 1944, the five injured Allied soldiers were transported in the back of a small truck to a hospital in Tours.  The remaining POWs were force marched to St. Pierre de Corps where they boarded a train and proceeded to Germany.  The casualties were buried in the Langeais Cemetery on August 8, 1944.

Ce wagon perpétue le souvenir des liens unissant les déportés évadés du train des 6 et 7 aout 1944 aux habitants de la Ville de Langeais.

Il a ét é érigé en monument national des évasions des trains de déportation le 29 aout 1999, en présence de Monsieur Jacques Vieuxloup Président de l’e Association Francaise des Déportés Evadés des Trains de Déportation et des Elus de la Ville de Langeais.

This wagon perpetuates the memory of the unifying ties between the escapees from the train of 6/7 August 1944 and the and the inhabitants of the town of Langeais.

It was erected as a national monument of escapees from trains on 29 August 1999 in the presence of M. Jacques Vieuxloup, President of the French association of Escapees of Deportation Trains and the elected officials of Langeais.