The offensive began on 7 June 1944 at 5 o'clock in the morning with a bazooka shot on the security forces' barracks at Champ de Mars serving as the signal to begin the attack. By 6 o'clock, the buildings used to house the German garrison were identified; the post office and the town hall, where the FTP established their command posts, were secured by 7 o'clock. At 8 o'clock, the train station was also taken by the resistance, who found there only eighteen watchmen and one employee of the railway, Abel Leblanc: invited to join the Maquis, they decided instead to await the end of the fighting in the station waiting room. At 11:30, the forces of the Milice and the Mobile Reserve Group hoisted a white flag on the barracks of the Champs de Mars and, following negotiations, they left the town around 4:00 pm carrying all their gear. For Elie Dupuy, whose FTP battle group was not affected by the order to fall back to Chapou, this departure was a failure of one of the operation's goals of recovering war material and transport from the security forces; but with his single battalion of only 90 men, he could not afford "to continue the attack against the German garrison, and at the same time, impose unconditional surrender on the security forces".