made from cotton, which itself was recycled from old hand-crocheted curtains. There was electricity, but power cuts were often and after the June 44 bombings there was no electricity at all for nearly two years. Otherwise, rationing, implemented by a system of tickets, went on for several years after the war. The only source of heat in the home was the wood stove in the kitchen. This was supposed to heat the whole house, but was seldom efficient enough to do more than cooking and hot water. With an abundant countryside nearby, the problem of finding enough food was manageable, compared to some of the larger towns. As a result, the young women’s boarding school was filled with children from the towns, sent by parents who were desperate to find a way to feed them. Eggs, milk, butter, meat, vegetables, cereals were not really in short supply and everyone had a garden. Apart from that, as everywhere, there were shortages of things like sugar, flour, oil, chocolate, coffee and bread, which was grey because it was made with bran. Resistance and collaboration In the early Spring of 1944, resistance operations intensified rapidly. The sabotage of telephone lines, plus frequent parachute drops of weapons and supplies created a demand for suitable hiding places. The recovery of airmen rescued from crashes increased as well as the need to find secure escape routes for vulnerable Resistants. In reprisal, the requisitioning of men for the surveillance of the railway lines was widespread (sabotage of an assigned line meant a firing squad), effected by threats of arrest and deportation. Direct denunciations were made, sometimes by French people influenced by Nazi propaganda, sometimes by anonymous letters, ending in the arrest of men and women who were to experience imprisonment, interrogation, torture and deportation. On the other hand, summary executions, sometimes ill-informed, were carried out by the Resistance, contributing to the stress and confusion preceding the Allied Landing. The mayor of the adjacent commune of Joué du Plain and a Belgian interpreter used by the Germans were both assassinated by the Resistance. The secretary of the town hall produced false ration cards to access ration tickets. She was denounced and deported to Germany, to a concentration camp, she came back, but was never fully recovered. Locals recall German military trucks, or lorries, setting out with their cargoes of requisitioned hostages. They rarely came back. Locals learned that