Mijanès (; oc, Mijanes) is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the Ariège department in southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is located close to two Cathar castles, the Château d'Usson and the Château de Quérigut. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the villagers of Mijanès were involved in the rescue of six British airmen of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

after their plane crashed on the Pic de la Camisette, a nearby mountain, in December 1944. Wreckage of the plane is displayed today at the Château d'Usson.

Population

Administration

Landmarks and communities

Church of St John the Baptist

The church in Mijanès is dedicated to

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

and dates from the 17th century. It was built in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

style and the façade was restored in 1965.

La Forge à la catalane

The community of la Forge à la catalane is located near to Mijanès by the River Bruyante and close to an area called la Mouline. It is so called because during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

a forge operated at this location. It is mentioned for the first time in 1714 when the Marquis d'Usson was authorized by King Louis XIV to build an ironworks there. The Mijanès forge was located by a river with a current strong enough to drive a

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucket ...

to power industrial

bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...

and

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scal ...

machinery. Because it was situated in the village, the water wheel was also used to run

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

s and a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. The iron ore was brought up by mules from Rancié and possibly also the

iron mine Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

s at Boutadiol. The iron was extracted from the ore by

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...

with wood charcoal.

Cathar Castles

Near to Mijanès is the Château d'Usson, an 11th-century ruined fortification which was used for sanctuary by the

Cathar Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Follo ...

s towards the end of the wars against the Cathars. The village is also situated close to and the Château de Quérigut.

Les Orrys

A number of shepherds'

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

s (''orrys'') survive in the hills around the village. These structures enabled shepherds and farmers to take shelter without having to return to the village. These huts have through the years without much deterioration due to their quality and simplicity of construction. Although they are numerous, they are difficult to find without the assistance of a mountain guide.

Mijanès ski station

Mijanès Donezan ski station is at 1470 m-2000 m altitude, with 45 km of ski routes including 36 km of cross-country skiing and 10 alpine skiing pistes, and five

ski lifts A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/ Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald. Types * Aerial ...

. It was founded in 1961 (M. Castilla, General Counsel).

Noubals

hydroelectric dam Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

is located at nearby Noubals. The facility also offers public access for leisure activities such as a fitness trail.

Geography

The river running through the village is La Bruyante. Surrounding peaks include Pic de Balbonne (2305 m), Roc Blanc (2 546 m) and Pic de la Camisette. The Monegou cave, which was discovered in 1968, is a

pit cave A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit (in the US) and pothole or pot (in the UK); jama in South Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric ...

which reaches a depth of 324m.

Notable people

The Abbot and geologist J. M. Durand, who was appointed at

Montségur Montségur (; Languedocien: ''Montsegur'') is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. It is famous for its fortification, the Château de Montségur, that was built on the "pog" (mountain) on the ruins of one of the las ...

, carried out excavations in the area. His discoveries are housed in a museum in Paris. He was the attached to the château d'Usson.

Jean-Pierre Bel Jean-Pierre Bel (born 30 December 1951) is a French retired politician who served as President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014. From the Ariège department, Bel is a member of the Socialist Party; he was elected to the Senate in September 1998 ...

, President of the French Senate from 2011, was a former mayor of Mijanès.

1944 Pic de la Camisette air crash

On 5 December 1944 a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Douglas Dakota III aircraft, serial number FL588, of the

crashed on the Pic de la Camisette, a mountain close to the commune of Mijanès, Ariège, in the French

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

. It was on a military transport operation during

. The Dakota was piloted by three RAF pilots. In total twenty-three airmen were on board, including twenty members of the

Glider Pilot Regiment The Glider Pilot Regiment was a British airborne forces unit of the Second World War, which was responsible for crewing the British Army's military gliders and saw action in the European theatre in support of Allied airborne operations. Establis ...

. Only six airmen survived the incident; sixteen died in the crash, another died within hours from his injuries. In spite of serious wounds, two of the survivors managed to reach the village of Mijanès to get help for the other survivors. FL588 originated from

RAF Northolt ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owner ...

in West London. Two Dakota planes took off at 09:00 on 5 December on a course for Marseilles transporting 20 glider pilots en route to India, who were trained to pilot

Horsa Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent. Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...

and

Hamilcar __NOTOC__ Hamilcar ( xpu, 𐤇𐤌𐤋𐤊 , ,. or , , "Melqart is Gracious"; grc-gre, Ἁμίλκας, ''Hamílkas'';) was a common Carthaginian masculine given name. The name was particularly common among the ruling families of ancient Carthage. ...

gliders to carry men and equipment. Around 15:30 one of the Dakota aircraft crashed on the Pic de la Camisette (alt 2426m ), striking the north face above the Roc de la Musique before coming down facing south-east near a lake. The exact cause of the crash is not known, although it is known that the aircraft came down in a blizzard. Seven pilots survived the crash initially, with varying degrees of injury but seven died during the night from injuries.

Rescue

The following morning, 6 December, the injured Blatch and Baker located Dawkins by following his cries of pain and attempted to bring him to shelter in the plane, but were unable to move him. In spite of having broken both his legs, Dawkins managed to drag himself towards the plane, where the other men gave him shelter in the wrecked fuselage. Blatch and Baker, who were barely able to walk, then went down into the valley to the village of Mijanès and sought help from the local inhabitants. A group of villagers from Mijanes formed a search party and went up to look for survivors, but were thwarted by nightfall and a fierce snowstorm. On 7 December, villagers from neighbouring Artigues retraced the steps of the two airmen and discovered the plane wreck on the Pic de la Camisette. Amid the wreckage they heard cries for help and found the officers Ainsworth, Henwood, Wigmore and Dawkins in the fuselage of the plane, alive but too severely injured to move. With great difficulty, the villagers carried the airmen down from the mountain, following the Barbouillère stream through the snow. The injured men were then taken from Le Pla by ambulance to

Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the Au ...

hospital. The bodies of eleven men were recovered from the crash site between 10 and 19 December, and buried in Mijanès. The search was suspended due to adverse weather conditions, but in the spring of 1945 a further six bodies were brought down from the crash site after the snow had melted. All of the airmen who died in the crash were later reburied in the

Mazargues Mazargues is a former village and now a neighbourhood of the 9th arrondissement in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. History Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné (1646–1705), a French aristocrat, had a bastide in Mazargues. On February 5, 1 ...

War Cemetery, Marseilles.

Wreckage

Remains of Dakota FL 588 have been preserved and today are on display at the Château d'Usson, a ruined medieval Castle noted for its association with the

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...

References

External links

L'épave du C47 de la Camisette
- photographs of a hiking trip to the Camisette crash site
Crash du Douglas C-47 - type A-1-DK Skytrain - s/n FL588 (42-92220) NQ-Z
- ''France Crashes 39-45'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mijanes Communes of Ariège (department) Ariège communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia