January 19, 1944. The Pau-Toulouse express leaves Pau at 5 o’clock in the morning. It’s a Wednesday. Train 3.512 mainly carries workers going to their factories or offices, and many seminarians.

At 6:10 a.m., on the Bayonne-Toulouse line, shortly before Tarbes, between the Ossun and Juillan stations, the convoy derailed. The wagons collide, three wooden box cars are crushed. The toll of the disaster is terrible: 27 dead and around fifty injured, some seriously.

There is sabotage. A rail was unbolted during the night. First aid arrives without delay and the SNCF emergency teams immediately set to work, soon followed by the services of the Red Cross helped by the seminarians of Tarbes who join many inhabitants of the region. Mr. Leydet, the prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées, Mgr Choquet bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Mr. Trelut, mayor of Tarbes, and the senior officials of the SNCF are also on site.

Was it a tragic blunder, didn’t the victims succeed the civilians? According to the “official” version which is debating, it was not this train that was targeted by the Resistance, but there would have been a reversal of two trains.

TO READ

“History of sabotage, from the CGT to the Resistance”, by Sébastien Albertelli, Éditions Perrin. 2016.