| Original caption: “Burned Out But Unbeaten. Quietly resting in the shade, an old woman of Angirey, Haute-Saône, sits outside the remains of her ruined café. Retreating Germans burned out the entire town before the Allied Seventh Army entered.” On September 10, 1944, the Germans, pursued by Allied troops from Gray-la-Ville, Haute-Saône, occupied the village of Angirey in retaliation for an attack by the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI; French Forces of the Interior, the Maquis). The battle lasted all day and 57 out of 61 houses in Angirey were burned. 7 maquisards and 5 civilians in Angirey were shot, including a 63-year-old woman. The dead included: Civilian farmer Henri Caput (May 11, 1900 – September 10, 1944) was the son of Albert, a farrier, and Pauline Augustine Sacquépey. He was a farmer and owner-operator. He married Marie Marguerite Billotet (October 25, 1900 – July 2, 1972), a farmer, on November 8, 1927, in Angirey. Ernest François Xavier Faivre (June 5, 1910 – September 10, 1944) was married and had 2 children and was a resistance fighter of the FFI. Born Jin Damprichard (Doubs). He worked as a cheesemaker in Arc les Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône). Joseph Faradon (September 30, 1881 – September 10, 1944) was the son of Philippe, 48 years of age, a laborer, and Thérèse Adèle Alexandrine Charnotet, 40 years of age, unemployed. He married Jeanne Marie Marceline Barolle (September 24, 1880 – ????) on May 16, 1910, in Angirey and his 2nd marriage on April 1, 1922, in Angirey to Esther Marie Victorine Lagnien (January 13, 1884 – April 23, 1938), a farmer. He was a farmer and owner-operator in Angirey. Maurice Goussard (November 6, 1920 – September 10, 1944) joined the Resistance with the FFI. He was born in Vereux (Haute-Saône). Daniel Paulin (November 21, 1921 – September 10, 1944) was the son of Henri François Auguste Paulin (1895 – ????), known as Canard, a boilermaker at the economic railways, and of Jeanne Rousselet (1895 – ????), of Gray-la-Ville. A railway worker, he was single and joined the SNCF as an auxiliary in the Track and Buildings department in Vesoul (Haute-Saône). He lived at the Grange des Carmes, in Velet, Haute-Saône. Avoiding the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO; “Compulsory Work Service”), he joined the Resistance and went into the Maquis. The death certificate was drawn up on October 5, 1944, based on the declaration of Georges Rouhen (???? – ????), a craftsman in Angirey. He was awarded the mention “Mort pour la France” on September 10, 1947. Pierre Pezet (February 16, 1923 – September 10, 1944) in Verdun-sur-Meuse (now Verdun, Meuse), and was employed in a bookstore in Arc-lès-Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône). He was employed in a bookshop in Arc-lès-Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône). Pezet joined the Resistance in the Defense of France movement in October 1943. Jean-François Picot (March 31, 1871 – September 10, 1944) was the son of Jean Antoine Picot (1850 – ????), a farmer, and Victoire Vienney (1843 – ????), a farmer. He worked as a farmer and owner-operator in Angirey. He married Marie Amélie Davignac, on April 29, 1899, in Nantilly (Haute-Saône). Gendarme Pierre Rebilly (May 6, 1906 – September 10, 1944) was a Sergeant Major in the Gendarmerie, in Besançon (Doubs). He joined the Resistance in the FFI to take part in the fighting of the Liberation. He was awarded the mention “Mort pour la France.” Pierre Rigollot (February 14, 1914 – September 10, 1944) of Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône), joined the Resistance in the FFI to take part in the fighting of the Liberation. He was awarded the Croix de guerre 1939-1945 and the Médaille militaire (“Military Medal”) posthumously. Ernestine Marie Seprey (July 28, 1880 – September 10, 1944) was the daughter of Jean Baptiste Guillaume (March 7, 1842 – ????), a farmer, and Joséphine Beaudouin (December 28, 1842 – ????), a farmer. She married Édouard Victor Caron (April 18, 1864 – June 25, 1919) on December 28, 1916, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Lumberjack Alexandre Viscardi (June 25, 1883 – September 10, 1944) born in Les Bâties (Haute-Saône) was the son of François Fidèle, a mason, and Constance Gaviret, a cutter. His father, originally from Tréviolo in Lombardy, came to France around 1881 and was naturalized French by decree of September 27, 1892. Alexandre Viscardi married Pauline Julia Masson on July 18, 1909, in Vezet, Haute-Saône, and a 2nd marriage on October 28, 1923, in Bâties with Marie Augustine Fleytoux, with whom he had 8 children. They divorced in 1941 in Vesoul. Grégori Stcherbakov or Tschabakoff, called “Grisza,” (circa 1922 – September 10, 1944) was a 22-year-old Soviet soldier who escaped from a Nazi German Prisoner of War camp. He joined the French Resistance in the “La Commune de Paris” FFI Maquis Battalion in Haute-Saône. Stcherbakov killed a German Lieutenant-Colonel and wounded his aide-de-camp before being shot. Their names appear as killed in action on the commemorative plaque and the war memorial 1939-1945, in Angirey and on the Resistance Memorial in Vesoul (Haute-Saône). The maquis were certified as a soldier of the FFI and obtained the title of “Deported and Interned Resistance Fighter” (DIR). The commune of Angirey was decorated with the Croix de Guerre after the liberation. Its reconstruction took 8 years. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2062.jpg |
| Image Size | 239.16 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1008 x 1303 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 30, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Angirey |
| State or Province | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté |
| Country | France |
| Archive | MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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