Lot n° 216
Estimation :
500 - 700
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 704EUR
WAR OF 1939-1945. 70 L.A.S. (including 13 postcards) from ho - Lot 216
WAR OF 1939-1945. 70 L.A.S. (including 13 postcards) from horseman André Fiévet to his parents (one to his aunt), in Ronchin (Nord); and about 80 L.A.S. (including 17 postcards) addressed to him by his father, Eugène Fiévet, or his family, 1939-1941; 158 pages in various formats, many A headings. & R. Fiévet Cycles, a few addresses and envelopes.
André Fiévet's metal identity plate is attached.
Correspondence during the "phoney war", briefly "to the armies", then to Vienne (Isère) and finally to the Rhone demobilisation centre. Incorporated in Évreux in the cavalry depot n° 3, 4th squadron, 1st platoon, Tilly district, André "starts to be dressed", on November 29th 1939, having received jacket and hood; he hopes that his situation will allow him to be put in the auxiliary... Discovery of military life : medical check-up, food, exercise, weapons handling, entertainment at the soldier's home; "with patience and perseverance I intend to become a good soldier" (13 December 1939)... Gas masks, driving a sidecar... Transferred to Fontevrault for the tank course at the cavalry mechanical organisation centre, he discovered the machines they would have to maintain, "and perhaps unfortunately also drive" (19 January 1940); On 10 May, as Germany launched its offensive on the western front, André told the story of a war film seen in the cinema at the soldier's home in Angers; at Beaufort on the 17th, in the Régiment de dragons portés, "we are doing nothing and don't know what we're going to do"; on 3 June, he was "on the front for a few days", then on the 30th, after a silence of several weeks, he believed in his "next return": "We [...] took part in the fighting in the Somme, the Seine and the Loire"... But until September 1941, he rode horses in Vienne, got bored and demobilized, worked at the vitriolerie in Lyon, waiting for a convoy to return... The family's correspondence bears witness to warnings, shortages of coal, the exodus of civilians; the family bicycle business is doing well, but "the bad news, no doubt peddled by interested people, has produced its disastrous effect by demoralizing a large number of inhabitants" (May 22nd 1940)..: horses billeted in its garages, bombing near the house, difficulties in supplying supplies, another son held prisoner in Germany, interruption of postal services for the Free France...
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