Children of the Shadows

By David F Eastman

In May, 1940, the German Army invaded France in a blitzkrieg attack that defeated the French army in six weeks. In Caen, France, as in the other cities of France, the French resistance arose to fight the Germans and free France from the brutal occupation by the Nazis. This is the story of the men and women who fought in the French resistance, in the dark of night and called by Brigadier General Charles De Gaulle, the leader of the Free French, the Army of the Shadows. and their heroic children, the Children of the Shadows, who fought bravely and heroically beside them to free their country. The story focuses on the lives of two young women, Marie Rose Dejardin and Eloise Anne Chambord, 15 and 17 years old, and their daily battle against the Nazis and their fight against the forces of evil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David F Eastman
• Release date: Dec 16, 2020

David F Eastman

I am an avid reader and passionate writer. I have written five eBooks and twenty short stories and my genres include science fiction, horror, political intrigue, conspiracy theories, fables and parables of life and love. I am currently working on two new eBooks, one about World War 2 and a second about a terrorist attack on the U.S.I am a retired life science and high technology marketing executive and currently mentor and guide scientists, physicians, medical students and engineers in launching their inventions and building a viable, successful and profitable start up.I have a Jewish heritage from both German and Polish grandparents, on my mother's side and an English, Native-American heritage of my father's side.I have one wife, one son, and four cats.I love to travel and learn about new cultures and people and just returned from a month long pleasure trip to Venice, Italy, New York City, Athens, Greece, Split Croatia, Montenegro and Zurich, Switzerland.I

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Children of the Shadows

(Enfants des Ombres)

By David F Eastman

Chapter One: Les Funérailles (The Funeral)

The day was windy and cloudy, as it often was in November before the first snow fell, with a slight chill in the salty air that swept into the seaside village of La Hague, France from the English Channel.

The date was 2005. On a high forested hill on the outskirts of La Hague stood an ancient 15th Century church called Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Over the six centuries of its existence, the church, constructed of hand hewn stone blocks and handmade straw bricks had not weathered the frequent North Sea storms well and part of the church was crumbling although still in use. Each and every Sunday as he had done for almost 35 years, the old priest of Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Father Jacques Bergere’, held services, nursed the sick, tended to the needy, and guided his flock.

Despite its age, at the top of the church, adorning its highest peak was an old rusted brass bell and on each of the adjoining twin peaks, small rusted crosses. At the back of the church facing the sea there stood an old cemetery with marble headstones, mausoleums and tombs with a stone rampart surrounding it. Many of the headstones dated back to the founding of the church in the 15th Century and, in subsequent centuries up to the present, had entombed priests and nuns who had devoted their lives to the La Hague community and devout Catholics who never missed a single Sunday mass. Around the front of the church and along the stone pathway that wound down the hillside meandering into the village below, was an ancient forest of trees that swayed back and forth in the blustery wind.

On this chilly, wintry day, a small assembly of old men and women, all dressed in black and standing under black umbrellas, stood in the cold weather to honor the passing of one of their beloved friends, Marie Rose DeJardin. Father Bergere’ stood at the end of the open grave where the headstone was already in place to mark Marie’s death. On it, chiseled and engraved in the white and black marble, were the words, Here overlooking her beloved sea, lies our beloved Marie. And below these words the dates of her birth and death: Marie Rose DeJardin, Born: June 25, 1925 Died: November 5, 2005.

Marie Rose DeJardin was 80 years old when she died. She lived a good life devoted to God and her family and, as her reward, she died peaceably in her sleep with her favorite cat, Minx, lying on the lace pillow next to her head. The people celebrating her life at her funeral were her closest friends, her daughter, Jeanne Eloise Marchant, her granddaughter, Rose, and her son, Raphael, and his family. Some of the people in attendance were neighbors who lived in La Hague, others were from the City of Caen where Marie was born, and still others had traveled from faraway places to honor her.

One of her oldest friends, Eloise Anne Chambord, from a time long ago when they were both teenage girls living with their parents in Caen, walked over to Father Bergere’ and asked if she could say an eulogy in memory of Marie. Eloise walked around to where Father Bergere’ was standing at the end of the headstone, stood next to him and placed both of her hands on the top of the marble monument.

82 years old herself, Eloise began her eulogy with tears in her eyes, her voice breaking and the fond memory of Marie in her heart, Marie was my dearest friend for over sixty five years, since we were young girls living in Caen in 1940. As you know, the Germans occupied Caen and most of France from 1940 until its liberation in 1944. During the occupation, we were frightened of the Germans every single day of our lives. Men who were friends of our fathers were executed in the streets for stealing food, or disobeying orders, or for simply being out past curfew. Our mothers and our sisters were raped and abused. Most of the time, we were half starved and the Germans stole the corn and wheat out of our fields. Our parents seeing this brutal injustice by the murderous Nazis secretly joined the French resistance to fight back. They fought the Nazis in the dead of night, sometimes attacking and killing them with their own stolen guns. On pain of death they spirited American and British pilots shot down over France safely out of the country. And, they worked for and spied on the Germans providing vital intelligence to the Allies. Nearly invisible and fighting in the dead of night, our parents, fierce resistance fighters, soon became known as the Army of the Shadows. And dear Marie and I and other brave children our own age who helped fight the Germans alongside our parents became known as the Children of the Shadows. Now Marie has passed onto her greater glory with our God and Savior, and lying for all eternity in this sunlit cemetery overlooking her beloved sea, shall never be in the shadows again.

After Eloise finished her memorial those attending said Amen, tossed single red roses onto Marie’s grave, then turned and sadly walked away to travel back to their homes. Father Jacques Bergere’ shook the hands of each of the attendees as they left the cemetery grounds and thanked them for coming. Eloise Anne Chambord watched the friends and family of Marie leave and before she walked away herself, she bent down and kissed Marie Rose DeJardin’s gravestone and then whispered a final, tear-filled goodbye.

Chapter Two: L'invasion Allemande (The German Invasion)

On a sunny spring day, early in the morning on Friday, May 10, 1940, in the ancient City of Caen, France, 15-year old Marie Rose DeJardin skipped down the cobble-stone Rue de Coeur carrying ten warm, freshly baked baguettes of sourdough French bread. She made this delivery every single day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon, to the restaurants, quaint bistros, and street vendors near Caen’s city center.

After she dropped off her last order at Café’ Ecole’, Marie ran down the Rue Claude Chappe, her blonde hair bouncing and her blue eyes darting about, to the private girl’s school, Lycée Privé Jeanne d'Arc, she attended. Only a few blocks from her home, she met up with her closest friend, Eloise Anne Chambord, a raven-haired, green eyed 17-year old girl who was the daughter of a nurse and a gendarme. Hand-in-hand, their book bags slung over their shoulders, they continued down the Rue Claude Chappe chatting away and then, hearing the chimes of the school bells, sprinted the last 100 yards to the school’s covered steps so they would not be late.

Marie’s mother, Claudette and her father, Lucien, owned a small Boulangerie, La Petite Tarte, where they baked baguettes, le gateaus, tartes and crème stuffed pastries. They opened La Petite Tarte ten years before, in 1930, when Marie was five years old. Their quaint, somewhat, tiny apartment home was situated just above their bakery in a stone building built in 1789 during the chaos of the French Revolution. Having to work early in the morning, Claudette would bring little Marie down to the bakery’s kitchen while she kneaded bread dough or cut angel-shaped cookies or iced a chocolate gateau. Over the ten years that Claudette, Lucien and little Marie lived and worked in Caen, now with a population of over 60,000 residents, they had grown a coterie of close friends and customers who loved the DeJardin family and their bakery.

On the same day Marie was delivering baguettes, Friday, May 10, 1940, hundreds of kilometers to the east of Caen, the German Army, in a blitzkrieg attack, invaded France. The German’s main thrust was across Belgium, racing around the heavily fortified Maginot Line, with its deep trenches, barbwire fences, gun emplacements and other concrete fortifications designed to stop any mechanized ground invasion. The German infantry was reinforced with Panzers, artillery and the full might of the Luftwaffe. They met little resistance from the French army. After successfully conquering Poland and neutralizing Britain through appeasement talks with the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, Hitler turned his gaze to France and the conquering of all the countries of Europe.

Within six weeks of the attack, the better-equipped and trained German army had prevailed and the outnumbered and outgunned French Army surrendered. Within days