« There was a cloud of soldiers in the square. The convoys were travelling on the 89 national road and therefore crossing the town. From then on, it never stopped. (…) after a while, there was only a small garrison of about fifteen men left in the town. These were soldiers from the Territorial Army who were guarding the pumping station and the railway bridge.
The appeal for calm addressed to the population by Prefect Rivière after the entry of German troops into Périgueux, on 11 November 1942
« This morning, at 9.30 a.m., a German formation entered Périgueux where it is to set up in the artillery quarter. This formation will place armed posts on the outskirts of Périgueux with a strictly military security mission. The commander of this formation has assured me that no restrictions will be placed on the normal life of the city and has assured me of the absolute correctness of his troops. I, in turn, make an urgent appeal to the population to maintain all necessary calm and composure and to avoid any incident at all. »
« The scuttling of the Toulon fleet as told by Raymond Pauly, a sailor on the torpedo boat « Le Bordelais » from Périgord
« The Germans arrived on 27 November 1942 at 4am. They started dropping mines in the channel, but some submarines managed to escape. We had been under pressure for about two months, ready to sail. The security teams did what was necessary to blow up the buildings by planting explosives. The doors to the gangways were left open to let in water and we swam out. The Germans were waiting for us on the quay and it was no fun for us. The Kriegsmarine [German Navy] was ready to take over the ships. The Germans took us prisoner and kept us until April 1943. I was 48 kilos when I got out.
Testimony of Hubert Faure, in charge of equipment maintenance (Organisation Camouflage du matériel)
« There was to be no written record of our activity. The 26th Infantry Regiment, the artillerymen of the 35th as well, were not supposed to have any transport equipment according to the armistice agreements. But all their equipment was … hidden in the woods. There was a lot of it in the Ribérac sector. The equipment had to be seen and turned at least once a month to be kept in good working order. My job was to check that this was done. We also hid untraceable parts like diesel injection pumps (…) in castles.