Historial of the peasant soldier

Summer 1944: thousands of men from the Allied armies landed on the coasts of Normandy and Provence. In the heart of the territory, the actions of the French Interior Forces are increasingly significant while repression becomes harsher. But the Liberation of French territory is underway. That of Allier and the town of Vichy as well.

It is the dramatic story of the end of the Occupation that the Corgenay Memorial association aims to tell by illustrating its message with numerous documents and period objects, from the D-Day beaches to the towns and villages of Bourbonnais.

Sport and the Great War: terms that do not seem intuitively linked. And yet! From the preparation of the citizen-soldier to the development of football in contact with British troops, even as the first great stars of athletics and cycling fall on the battlefields, sport, a phenomenon born in the industrial era, touches suddenly all of the youth mobilized. ” Faster. Upper. Stronger “. The motto is Olympic, it could be that of the soldier from whom we always ask more in a conflict that has become industrial.

Rationalized, thought out, sport is supposed to allow the soldier to be more enduring, fast, swift and slender… Propaganda praises the virtues of the sporting soldier. Can we even believe it as there are so many Bouin, Faber, Lapize, Boyau, all renowned champions, who fell on the field of honor? Being a champion doesn’t save you from bullets. For his part, the poilu prefers to make fun of situations that he compares to sporting activities… swimming in the mud of the trenches, the weights under the heavy gear of the soldier…

But if sport is useful to the soldier, it is also relaxation for the soldier. During a match between regiments or even between allied soldiers, we forget the “Grand match”, to use Henri Desgrange’s metaphor thus designating the war in his editorial of August 4, 1914 in the newspaper l’Auto. It is a time of cohesion during which even the military hierarchy gives way to the hierarchy on the ground…

An exhibition rich in objects and documents, from Allier and all of France…