Variant 3 - Germans seized collection until Pétain and Laval intervened

Variant 3 - Musso sent one of his aides, Commissioner Mann, to prevent the truck from leaving Chambon. At 2:40pm, the “commissaire special [Mann]” told Musso that the inspectors from the Police Judiciaire had arrived at Chambon with workmen for the purpose of removing the crates. Musso told him to prevent this from happening. But when he returned to the castle, everyone had already left with the crates. Mann noted the absence of the truck and of the crates. The truck had left accompanied by a “tourist vehicle” [voiture de tourisme]. Roadblocks were installed on roads around Laguenne. The removal team had burned down the gendarmerie HQ at Uzerche before being stopped by the Gendarme brigade at Masseret. The crew vituperated against the French gendarmes, screaming that they were German officers and threatening them with their guns. The latter reminded the Germans that they would return fire if attacked. M. Mann, a RG commissaire, was dispatched to the scene. Magnien was sent to appease the occupants of the truck and the car that accompanied it. There were 5: a German wearing civilian clothing who behaved like the leader, 2 young men, Jean Petit and the truck driver. Mann was unable to obtain any written proof of these people’s titles and orders. They simply told him that they were German security officers. Eventually, the secrétaire général de la préfecture [de la Corrèze] showed up with the commander of the GMR. The German in civilian clothes told them that he was in fact a German Wehrmacht officer dressed in civilian garb. The French reassured him that he was free to go as he wished but the truck had to remain in French custody, until such time as the status of its contents was ascertained. The German officer reiterated that he took orders from no one and provided his name: Emil Hess. The two young men turned out to be CGQJ employees dispatched by Darquier de Pellepoix to ensure the removal of the crates. The secrétaire general then proposed to Hess that they head out to the office of the Intendant de Police of Limoges, but Hess refused. Instead, Hess made a telephone call from the offices of the Brigade de Gendarmerie de Masseret, asking that 2 German officers from Limoges should meet up with him and observe the situation. Two SS officers appeared at the checkpoint and reiterated what Hess had told the French, that they were not accountable to them. At 7 :30pm the German-led convoy flanked by French gendarmes made its way to Limoges. The plan was to park in front of the Intendance de Police where it would wait for further orders from Vichy. Instead, the driver sped past it and parked it close to a German barracks. When the Secretary protested against the entry of the truck inside the barracks, Hess and the SS yelled at him. As more SS showed up to protect the parked convoy and its members, the French police felt at a disadvantage and on the cusp of a serious incident. Outnumbered and outgunned, the French officials demurred, wishing to avoid a major incident. The secgen protested and called the Intendant de Police and the Préfet régional (Haute-Vienne). The latter immediately contacted Colonel Menzel. Protests were made. The regional prefect called the head of the Hauptverbindungsstab, Colonel Menzel denied any knowledge of the situation. Meanwhile, Mr. Petit and the two young men from the CGQJ entered the barracks inside a tourist vehicle. Colonel Menzel assured the French that the truck would be protected and guarded at the German barracks until a decision was made jointly by higher German and French authorities. Laval and Pétain were alerted that the Germans had seized the collection and brought it to Limoges after an armed confrontation between French gendarmes and the German SD agents. Vichy intervened to ensure that the collection would be stored in a facility controlled by French officials, not by German police or military. Hence, the collection was transferred to the Banque de France in Limoges with the help of the “administrator of the collection dispatched from Paris for this reason. The French gendarmes who intercepted the truck on the road to Limoges were given orders to shoot the German agents if they provoked a confrontation.