German specialists were to begin a search on Tuesday for the bodies of 46 Wehrmacht soldiers shot dead during World War II in southwestern France.    

The hunt for the mass grave in a forested area near the village of Meymac was triggered by the testimony of 98-year-old ex-resistance fighter Edmond Reveil.  

French resistance fighters executed the German soldiers, along with a French woman accused of collaboration, in June 1944, when France was occupied by Nazi Germany. The killings came after German SS troops massacred hundreds of people in nearby communities. 

Reveil, thought to be the last surviving witness from the French resistance group, broke his silence about the events in May, setting in motion plans to search for and exhume the bodies.  

'Still in search of WWII dead bodies'

"It is extraordinary that people are still searching for dead bodies from World War II in France," said Diane Tempel-Bornett, a spokeswoman from the German War Graves Commission. 

The commission is providing a georadar to scan the ground and establish the exact site of the graves.

Bornett added that evaluation of the data for the search would take about 4 weeks, and only then would it be decided when and where to dig.  

Three days after D-Day, French resistance fighters captured dozens of Wehrmacht soldiers in the town of Tulle on June 9, 1944. In a retaliation, Waffen SS troops publicly hanged 99 civilians. A day later, another SS unit wiped out nearly an entire village community in Oradour-sur-Glane, where 643 people were killed. 

On June 12, resistance fighters shot the captured Wehrmacht soldiers in a wooded area near Meymac. 

The identity of the German soldiers is not yet known. If human remains are found, they will be sent to a laboratory in Marseille. 

ara/nm (AFP, dpa)