Home remodeling unearths WWII weapons cache with engraved STENs named ‘Pepette’ and ‘Alice’

A couple from northern France made an incredible discovery while remodeling their home about 150 miles from Paris. A French Resistance weapons cache loaded with three STENS, more than a dozen fragmentation grenades, three handguns, spare magzines, and well over 1,000 rounds of ammunition was found buried in the soil.

After most of France fell to Nazi Germany, a collection of patriotic Frenchmen formed resistance cells who engaged in guerrilla warefare against the Germans, collected intelligence, and helped captured or trapped allied forces escape from behind enemy lines.

Working, living, and fighting in enemy territory was incredibly dangerous for resistance fighters. Resisteance cells frequently buried arms, rations, and other essentials in resource caches. A local museum reports this particular cache is believed to have been placed by the Maquis Vauban, a resistance group that operated in north-central France from 1943-1944.

The cache has been remarkably well preserved for more than 70 years. Two of the stens were engraved, one named “Alice” the other named “Peppette.”

Throughout the war, allied forces air dropped arms, munitions, and other supplies behind enemy lines to help aid the resistance. Over the last seven decades weapons caches have been slowly found throughout Northern Europe across Denmark, France, and Latvia.

This amazing piece of history will be preserved at the Museum of the Resistance in Morvan where they will restored, demilitarized, and placed on display for an exhibition in Spring, 2018.