Monument to General Leclerc

The monument Leclerc was inaugurated on March 15, 1970 by the mayor Jean Cren, the prefect of the Orne Jean Lucchesi (free French, former of the 2nd armoured division, Companion of the Liberation) in the presence of the minister of veterans and victims of war, of Marshal Leclerc of Hauteclocque’s wife and many former division to recall the liberation of the city by general Leclerc.

This monument is very well placed and very informative : the population is familiar with the silhouette of the man with the cane represented by a bronze statue backed by a large stone book bearing the great dates of the epic and whose hinge is in the shape of a cross of Lorraine. It should be noted that two communes of the department of Orne are mentioned: Alençon and Ecouché.

Alençon was liberated on August 12, 1944. On the evening of 11, the division’s vanguard was 3 km from Alençon. It was the 4th squadron of the 12th Cuirassiers Regiment. The attack was scheduled for the next day.

But in the night a shell fire fall on the HQ of Champfleur, at 2h00 in the morning, killing 2 soldiers. The sound of the blast immediately awakened general Leclerc who immediately went to Saint-Gilles where he was put in contact with a young resistance fighter of 19 years, Raymond Ciroux, who voluntarily went to the front of the tanks of the 2nd Armoured division.

Ciroux confirmed to Leclerc that the Germans left Alençon and that the bridges of the city were not mined. Leclerc decided to invest in Alençon and to take part personally in this expedition. A column of jeeps and armoured vehicles, guided by Raymond Ciroux, set in motion at night. By this action, the city of Alençon was liberated in the middle of the night without a shot.

Leclerc had just speeded up the Germans who were about to reinvest the city in the early morning.

It was therefore from his command post established near the Pont Neuf that on the morning of August 12, Leclerc supervised the liberation of Alençon and the progress of his men throughout the city.

Alençon becomes symbolically the first French metropolitan city liberated by a unit under French command. Like Paris and Strasbourg later, Alençon became part of the legend of Leclerc’s division.