War letters from Maurice Rougier
From 17 September to end of November 1939
Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 17 September 1939, dated from qca from near Sedan, addressed to Granie to Reulle-Vergy
"Monday, 17th
My darling
We've been here since yesterday afternoon after 32 hours of travel. We're not in a big village, I'm staying in a large house like two months ago with a view on a river. It's quiet. I saw it when I made an affair this morning Frisch of Strasbourg who is EM secretary in the neighborhood, his wife goes well and is in the country, he's in charge of his tributes for you. What a strange coincidence.
We have little news here, as newspapers arrive badly and do not have a radio that is easy to hear. We just know that the Russians have also invaded Poland, poor Polish!
I have a very good team with me and good comrades, we are at my office, I have as an Israelite commander who is my kind faith, he is a coulissier in Paris and can give us scholarship advice. My deputy is a math teacher at Louis the Great High School. We form a huge poppy. Chapel is with me.
I can't tell you where we are, but don't worry, we're quite quiet right now.
Nothing from you for three days, let's hope I get something tomorrow.
Tender kisses with casseroles and with you
your Mauritius
On September 20, Maurice Rougier sent a postcard with his affectionate kisses. The map shows the Meuse in Dun on Meuse 40km at the SSE in Sedan. It's perhaps there that Maurice cantons with the EM of the 10th CA, but he had to move afterwards, closer to Sedan
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 6 October 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Wednesday, 6 Oct
My darling
Nothing to keep me informed of your trip (It is for Granie and her daughters to go to meet Aunt Cécile in Cancon, in the Lot and Garonne. Her husband Marcel Maillet is a young brother of Granie, engineer of Sup Elec in an electrical work company in Agen, he is mobilized, Aunt Cécile has retreated to their country house with her daughter Colette of 5 years, Suzanne and Marcel, resident of Sceaux, is also there, refugee from the Parisian region that has emptied herself of most of its inhabitants).
I received a reply from the Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations acknowledging receipt of my recommended letter that I had sent them and promising a precise answer later. Attached in any case your draft which seems to me very well.
Here I have enough work at this moment, a job that I like very much, because it takes me out on the ground and walk (15 km every 2 days through woods and meadows).We have lunch with the 2 comrades, including Chapelle, who do this work in a village where there is a fine cook who cooks us chicken, rabbit, goose, etc.... I think that I am fattening a little.
He was informed of Fredy's recent injury (heart attack) and was temporarily unfit for colonial service (he was Governor of French Sudan in Bamako).
If you go to Agen you could go see a aunt (Mother's first cousin, But I don't see who it is.) who lives there with her son: the cousin...?.Liard??, who I believe lives on Scaliger Avenue? If the war continues next year you might be able to settle at her house (it seems she has a very large house) so that the children can do their 6th in high school.
Adolf has just given a speech, but we do not yet have the full content of it, whatever his proposals are, they cannot be accepted because we know what his promises are worth.
Goodbye, my little wife, kisses with the casseroles, with Mother, with memories of Cecile and tenderly with you
Your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 8 October 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Sunday, 8 Oct
My darling
I'm getting your Tuesday letter and your Thursday card together.
(laughs in Dijon) If the war is to last a long time, it may not be a bad idea, but if it ends in six months, it's not worth it. There might be the under-rent solution that would suit a long or short war.
I hope you have made a good trip and rested from your storage. Be careful not to get too tired and keep yourself healthy. I will send you a balance card for the month of September tomorrow, starting at the end of this month, you will receive a home delegation of about 2000F which I will complete each month with a mandate of 1000F.
I'm glad the coconuts have grown 3kg and I hope they'll get a good look at it.
Today, Sunday, I attended a great mass this morning and this afternoon I stayed in my town hall. My gratitudes in the country are over for the moment and I regret it.
Kiss everyone and tenderly to you.
your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 25 October 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Wednesday, 25 Oct
My darling
Leaves are the great news of the day and you think how happy we are all. When I come, I can't yet clarify it, the plan is not yet studied but I don't think it is until December, I would like to try to come for Christmas to enjoy the coconuts that will be on holiday. And you, you have wishes about it? and boring dates...
We're still in our business. I don't think that with this bad weather Adolf is trying something, and the newspapers say he wants to bewitch us and turn his fury against our valiant allies.
How do we get to Cancon, where we're taking the train to Paris, where we change and what's the schedule?
Yesterday I received the 2nd pack of Dijon containing embroidered and woollen. Stop your shipments because I will be submerged, I already bought a knitting from under and also a pair of rubber boots that I am satisfied enough for the big days of rain.
Think about sending me the magazine from Paris, I don't have much time to read but it will please me. I got back to the bridge and I make one almost every night with Chapelle and other comrades, it allows me to go to bed only at 10 am and to live his room unheated and quite humid. I'm also here with an old lady who lives alone, my room is not bad with a toilet but obviously it lacks hot water.
(the order?)
always go well and take back my business in a superior way. Kiss everyone and tenderly to you
Your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 27 October 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Friday, 27 Oct
My darling
I received your letter from last Saturday, and you must now be in possession of my letter about the move and everything must be on the way.
.......
Here it snowed for 5 minutes yesterday and the weather is well cooled.
For the operations, read the articles in the newspaper they are well done and sum up the question, I think there will be no big operations this winter either and we will continue to look at each other in faience dogs.
There's nothing new about the dates of departure on leave, we're preparing the tour. Life is quite quiet here: office work cut off by a few short walks around and from time to time by a car tour on the lines. We always do good cleaning in the office; our interpreter Commander Dreyfus, a good Jew, is coulissier and knows Desaché (a well-known currency exchange agent from Vonnette)My assistant is a math teacher... ... and the others have the most varied professions.
I kiss you tenderly, kisses with coconuts and Mother, good memory at Cecile,
your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 3 November1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Friday, 3 Nov. 1939
My darling
I'm getting your Sunday letter today. I think all the packages you sent me... .... have arrived, I received 3. As I told you I'm starting to get well assembled but 2 pairs of wool socks will still be welcome.
We are always staying at the home and only need to take refuge in our shelters if we alert. Those of my office are quite large and spacious 3 rooms under concrete, it is also an old historical shelter that served during the last one in the Kronprinz.
..........
I think Adolf must be well bored, not seeing a solution favorable for him, he has no free space except in Belgium, Holland or Switzerland, and where would it be worth it?
I'm fine and I keep on following my diet, I haven't had any migraine alerts and I hope that it will continue. Our kitchen is not too heavy and there is always a replacement for those who want ham and potatoes cooked in water.
I also received a letter from Mom, they're all in Gerdes. (including Louise, Lucie and her daughter Paulette Fazembat), Louis (Lisa Scola's son) who has a 15-day recovery will return to St-Cyr, Louise will go to Paris during her school time.
Common disorders and kisses
your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 10 November1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Friday, 10 Nov 39
My darling
I received your letter and Claude's letter yesterday, which spoke to me at length about your collection of mushrooms; I think you must now have news of our move...
.....
Yesterday I got a pair of socks and gloves knit by Paulette, it was still from Gerdes, you know when they're going to Toulouse and if they all go there.
For permissions, we're talking about the current as a beginning, I think I'll be in the 2nd 4 furnace, which would make me around December 5th to 15th?
We have had a very mild time for 4 or 5 days, I went out all afternoon yesterday, in the evening we invited the famous cinema actor Albert Préjean who is lieutenant in one of our regiments, to distract us and change us, he is my very simple faith and good boy. I take care of the cinema and the distractions to raise morale and that's how I had met him.
Tell Fannette. that it's a big lazy not to write to me, thanks to Claudet for her kind letter and sweet kisses to all three
your Mauritius
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 12 November 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Sunday, Nov.
My darling
I got your little pack of socks before yesterday, and I like them a lot, thanks to the knitters.
What do you think of the attack on Hitler? (??) And threats to Holland? It must be a comedy...
? ... Like the Reichtag fire, the other one might ..
?... operations on this side.
Yesterday I received a card from Marcel, which Andrée had been able to join at Neufchateau, or even I believe in Domrémy. What does this brave Andrée do, she must not have much fun waiting for her wounded.
Here we are currently vaccinating against typhoid, it is mandatory for people under 40 years of age, for others it seems that it is useless because we do not risk much.
Yesterday 11 Nov the reserve officers of the popotte made us the surprise of a guelletton offered by them. Attached the menu, it was perfectly cooked by the mistress of house where our poppot is bebedded and you know if there were wines, I drank water. I continue to follow my shark treatment which I am satisfied with, I have not had any migraine alerts since my departure.
Nothing specific about permissions, they don't start until the 20th, I will go through Paris because it seems to me even shorter. ...? ...
to know where this Penne is (??) Where you have to go.
I hope to have a word from you this afternoon and kiss you, little woman, very tenderly.
your country
PS. Don't put the Corps N° on my letters, you put it on the package before yesterday.
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 13 November 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Tuesday (rather than the 12th, or so we're the 14th)
13 Nov 39
My darling
I have received your letter today and those of the ladies. I was very pleased to read all this literature. I see that their religious instruction is done more carefully than in Dijon and I am not dissatisfied with it. But you think that they will not waste their time and that they will not be delayed in their studies by this change of curriculum. Often, there is a lot of praise for the primary teaching processes, what do you now think you can make the comparison?
I am well informed now about my trip, but it is a real journey in the long run, I will go through Paris where I will try to stop to see Louis. If I go to Toulouse to see Mom and Lucie, of course you would accompany me there, it would be at the end of my permission to go back.
We're going to make a fortune if it goes on for a long time, I get 4 rations a day, or 20 francs, as much as I'm fed, the poppie doesn't exceed that price. With other allowances it must now be 5000F per month. Take some weapons vouchers, it must not be bad and it is a duty.
On the Italian side, I believe that we can be quiet....
PS I'm getting the magazine from eParis, so you want me to send it back to you.
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Extract from the letter from Maurice Rougier of 24 November 1939, dated from qu'a partir de Sedan, addressed to Granie in Cancon
"Friday, 24 Nov.
My darling
.......
I couldn't write to you yesterday because I was very busy: the English shot down a big reconnaissance plane over us, it fell near here by landing quite slowly and we had 3 prisoners, one of them seriously wounded. I think that at this moment they are going through hard, the press release is talking about 17 killed for three days. (We too, it was those days that Yo Saillard, a young brother of my Aunt Maine was killed aboard his hunter Curtiss P36 shot in Lorraine)
It was a great two days, sun but frozen, which explains why they were going out so much.
I'm going to leave for this famous permission on the 3rd morning and I'm going to arrive on the 4th.
