Maquis of Vercors

Courses of the facts

1940-41: Exile and refuge

After the signature of the Armistice of 1940, first resistant French and foreigners, persecuted and exiled, gain Vercors, then in free zone. The plate then wants to be at the beginning a zone of refuge, as creation testifies some to a Polish college with Villard-with-Lans.

1942: The Maquis structure

In 1942, the free Zone is invaded, which pushes soldiers of the dissolved army and members of the movement Franc-Tireur, during the winter, to join the maquis of Vercors and to organize resistance. Close to Sassenage, the maquis is created by the architect Pierre Dalloz and the writer Jean Prévost. The journalist Lyons Yves Farge, correspondent of Jean Moulin, the future general Alain Ray, first military chief of the maquis of Vercors, and Eugene Chavant, civil chief, unite with the project.

During this time, the first cell is born on the plate from Ambel, with Omblèze.

1943: Parachutings

In 1943, fleeing the Service of obligatory work (STO) of young French comes to enlarge the rows of the maquis. They are very quickly taken charges some by local resistance, primarily of the officers of battalions of dissolved Alpine hunters and former students of the École of the executives of Uriage.

In November 1943, the first parachuting of weapons and material takes place in the plain of Darbounouze, following a strategic planning prepared by Pierre Dalloz, envisaging to use the solid mass of Vercors as bases reception of combined airborne elements, in order to act with Grenoble and Valence to cut the German retirement at the time of the Libération, and accepted by the French services of London under the name of plan Montagnards .

Charles Tillon, chief of the national Military committee of the Franc-tireurs and Partisans, has warned for several months of the risk of fortified camp and recommends on the contrary, but in vain, the installation of a multitude of small maquis, mobiles, ready to be melted in the population.

1944: A terrible destiny

The first German attacks against Vercors take place the January 22nd 1944 with the Great Narrow parts, then the January 29th with Malleval, followed those to the Monastery of Esparron and Saint-Julien-in-Vercors.

Soon known like one of the principal centers of resistance of the maquis, the village of Vassieux, located on the plate of Vercors around 1100 meters of altitude, is the object, from April 16th to 24th 1944, of a first operation of repression, carried out by the French Milice under the command of Dagostini. Several farms are plundered and set fire to, of the inhabitants are tortured and off-set and three of them are shot. In spite of that, the population remains largely favorable to Resistance.

Within the framework of the allied plan aiming at to set ablaze all the hexagon not to reveal that Overlord interests only the Normandy (Pierre Montagnon), the code the Chamois of the Alps leaps (the animal being the emblême maquis), launched from London the June 5th 1944, gives the signal of the resistance armed for 4000 men of the maquis. Vercors sees converging towards him of the hundreds of volunteers, impatient to act. They are placed under the command of the lieutenant-colonel François Huet, military chief of Vercors.

On June 13rd and 15th, the Germans, caused by the deployment of an immense flag to the colors of the Free Republic of Vercors (proclaimed officially the next on July 3rd), visible since the valley, occupy Saint-Nizier, the easiest access towards the solid mass of Vercors, before being folded up on Grenoble. June 21st, they also measure the effective resistance of the combatants to the hamlet of Écouges. On their side, the men of the maquis await the execution of the plan Montagnards and ask for the sending of airborne troops.

June 25th, the Allies proceed to a massive parachuting of weapons on the plate. On several occasions, the population brings its assistance to the operations of recovery of the material, of day like night. The weapons are in particular hidden in natural cavities (scialets, cracks of lapiaz…) very many on the Plate of Vassieux. However, about half of the combatants remain not armed.

At the beginning of July 1944, the mission Steamer , charged to prepare a landing strip in Vassieux, is sent by the authorities of Algiers. One of the two sections being this responsible is under the orders of Claude Falck. But, following disagreements, of promises not held and errors with the dramatic consequences, the " plan; Montagnards" will never be applied; it even tragically will be reversed, the men of the maquis, attacking potential, becoming besieged taken with the trap.

In full euphoric parade, on July 14th, 1944, after the throw of more than one thousand of containers by the Allies, Vassieux is this time reduced in ashes, in reprisals, by the bombardments of German aviation and 25 inhabitants are killed. This operation continues until July 21st while the German troops (with battalions of mountain) block all the accesses to the plate. In one night of engagements, the resistant ones find themselves overflowed and the military commander of the forces of Vercors, François Huet, orders the dispersion of the groups of men of the maquis who owe, according to his formula, maquiser the maquis .

The Falck section then tries to gain the Matheysine, but only an any small portion, whose no officer, succeeds in reaching this difficult plate of access.

Encircled by approximately ten thousand soldiers and police German, the maquis of Vercors is dislocated, at the end of July 1944, following an offensive launched by the German general Karl Pflaum from Grenoble, in particular using airborne troops by Planeur S.

Witness of the violence of the engagements, the hamlet of Valchevrière, in full forest, was used as camp to the men of the maquis before being the place of a severe confrontation July 22nd and 23rd 1944. On the view-point which dominates the village, lieutenant Chabal and his men sacrificed themselves to delay the German advance and died the weapons with the hand. The houses were then burnt. Today, the village in ruins remained in the state, with its calcined, its stones with naked and blackened beams. Only the small vault is still upright.

Assessment

After stepping of the sources available, it appears that the German command implemented more 10 000 soldiers and police officers (German and auxiliary foreigners), is:

1. Near total of manpower of the 157. Reserve-division of Wehrmacht:

Four battalions of hunters of mountain of reserve (Btl. I. /98, II. /98, 99 and 100 of Reserve-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 1, less forces ensuring the immediate safety of the frontier collars);
Two pomegranate battalions of reserve (Btl. 179 and 199 of Reserve-Pomegranate-Regiment 157, Btl. 217 resident with Embrun);
Two artillery batteries of reserve (of Res.Geb.Art.Abt. 79 of Reserve-Artillery-Regiment 7).

2. Following auxiliary forces:

the Kampfgruppe “Zabel” (compound in particular of a pomegranate battalion of 9.Panzer-Division and of a Ostbataillon );
Three battalions of Legion of the East (Ost-Legion);
Approximately four hundred parachutists of the special forces (II. /KG 200);
Approximately two hundred Feldgendarmen ;
a battalion of safety (I. /Sicherungs-Regiment 200);
a battalion of police force (I. /SS-Polizei-Regiment 19) as not of support for the medical base.

According to Jacques Delperrié de Bayac, the French Militia (approximately five hundred franc-guards and agents of the 2nd service) did not take part in the final attack in July: arrival at the beginning of April, it fought at the sides of the Germans in June, but left Vercors at the end of this month.

On the whole, Vercors cost 639 killed to the combatants and 201 with the civilians. Only one hundred Germans were killed in the engagements and about fifty casualties died thereafter in Grenoble. 573 houses were destroyed, 41 off-set inhabitants of Vassieux…

Following the example Maquis of Glières, this tragedy clarified the vulnerability of the " maquis-silos" , where were concentrated too much men too slightly armed and trained.

In homage to this heroic episode, the commune of Vassieux-in-Vercors was high with the row of Compagnon of the Release by the Général de Gaulle. Later, a memorial was built with the top of this village, with the locality Col of Chau , on the road of Make-in Urle. It recalls in a poignant way these tragic events.

The commander Tanning Pierre wrote: It is something of more important than to know if Vercors is justifiable on strategic planning, it is to know if it is it on the moral level… On this vast plate, of the French of any origines and all opinions knew to group and be linked with the only ambition to escape the constraint… Tant of versed blood made these mountains a crowned ground, a ground which must be now respected as a sanctuary where the torch of our freedom was relit, like one of the cradles of the French Rebirth.

See too

Massive of Vercors
Maquis of Glières
Battle of the Mount Gargan
Order of the Release
Alain Ray
Chambaran
Maquis (resistance)

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