The Maquis de Rieumes was one of the

maquis Maquis may refer to: Resistance groups * Maquis (World War II), predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance * Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fought against Francoist Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War * The network ...

groups of

French resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

fighters during the Second World War. In 1942, the ''

Juge d'instruction In an inquisitorial system of law, the examining magistrate (also called investigating magistrate, inquisitorial magistrate, or investigating judge) is a judge who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases ma ...

'' of

Muret Muret (; in Gascon Occitan ''Murèth'') is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Muretains''. It is an outer suburb of the city o ...

, André Reboul, along with other patriots, founded the group which in 1944 would become the Maquis de Rieumes. In 1943, the group reinforced itself and was joined by, among others, Jules Delattre, a retired air force captain who would become the commander of the Maquis de Rieumes. It was also joined by some other Rieumois: Doctor Robert Roger (''Médecin Capitaine de réserve''), Doctor Charles Chwartz (''Médecin Lieutenant de réserve''), Jean Lécussan (a retired army ''Adjudant chef''). The year 1943 was devoted to recruitment, training and to the organization of teams in the villages of the cantons of Auterive,

Carbonne Carbonne (; oc, Carbona) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Geography The A64 autoroute passes near the village. Carbonne station on the Toulouse–Bayonne railway has rail connections to Toulouse, Pau and Ta ...

and

Rieumes Rieumes (; oc, Riumas) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and ...

. In 1944, events gained momentum following parachute drops announced by ''

radio Londres ''Radio Londres'' (, French for "Radio London") was a radio station broadcast from 1940 to 1944 by the BBC in London to German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi-occupied France. It was entirely in French Language, French and was o ...

'', and an arms depot was set up in Rieumes. On 1 June, battle stations were announced with the message "''Messieurs, faites vos jeux''". On the 5th, two more messages, "''Le père la Cerise est verni''" and "''Veronese était un peintre''" communicated the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. In the night, the teams met up in the wooded part of Rieumes and divided themselves into three companies, one of which was based in the forest of Lautignac-Savères. Towards the end of June, the fuse was lit as Reboul joined the ''corps franc Pommiès'' with 200 men.

Notable events involving the maquis

* 7 June 1944 : Sabotage of the railway at Capens * 8 June 1944 : Sabotage of phone lines in the cantons of Rieumes and Carbonne. * 10 June 1944 : Sabotage of railway points and high-voltage pylons at Noé. * 11 June 1944 : Sabotage of points and pylons at Muret. * 12 June 1944 : Destruction of underground gas pipelines at Carbonne. * 14 June 1944 : Sabotage of pylons at

Le Fauga Le Fauga (; oc-gsc, Le Haugar) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Population Economy The commune once had the headquarters of Air Méditerranée.

. * 15 June 1944 : Sabotage of points at Longages. * 16 June 1944 : '' Coup de main'' on a fuel depot at the Francazal aerodrome. * 29 June 1944 : Sabotage of points and pylons, and destruction of a water pumping station for steam trains at Muret. * 2 July 1944 : Destruction of

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

railway signals, tracks and telephone lines at Muret. * 14 July 1944 : Parade in the cities of Rieumes and Muret. * 15 July 1944 : A German ambush results in the death of Lieutenant Roger, in charge of the demolitions section. * On 17 July, at 6:00 in the morning, four JU 88 bombers attacked and dropped their bombs over the part of the forest towards Sajas. However, the maquis was located at the other end of the forest. Part of the forest caught fire. Towards noon, a white flag was put by Berthe on the "Rougeat" field – the signal that the Germans were arriving. The column included two tractions in front, six jeeps, a machine-gun, an ambulance and approximately 200 men. The fighting lasted three hours and resulted in about 20 casualties among the German troops. Near 3:00 pm, in danger of becoming surrounded, the maquis retired towards Montastruc Savès without sustaining any wounded. * 20 July 1944 : Installation of the Maquis in the Fabas forest The Maquis carried out operations until the liberation of Muret on 20 August 1944. A

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

of gratitude to the people of Savères and Lautignac was constructed at the edge of the forest. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maquis De Rieumes