The Battle of Vercors in July and August 1944 was between a rural group of the
French Forces of the Interior
The French Forces of the Interior (french: Forces françaises de l'Intérieur) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation ...
(FFI)
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 ...
''] and the armed forces of Nazi Germany which had occupied France since 1940 in the Second World War. The maquis used the prominent scenic plateau known as the (Vercors Plateau) as a refuge. Initially, the maquis carried out only sabotage and
partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
operations against the Germans. However, after the
Normandy Invasion
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...
of 6 June 1944, the leadership of an army of about 4,000 maquis declared the Free Republic of Vercors and attempted to create a conventional army to oppose the German occupation.
The
allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
supported the maquis with parachute drops of weapons and by supplying teams of advisors and trainers but the uprising was premature. In July 1944, as many as 10,000 German soldiers invaded the massif and killed more than 600 of the maquisards and 200 civilians. It was Germany's largest anti-partisan operation in Western Europe of the war. In August 1944, shortly after the battle for the Vercors, the area was liberated from German control by the
American Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and the FFI.
Geography
The
Vercors Massif
The Vercors Massif is a Mountain range, range in France consisting of rugged plateaus and mountains straddling the ''département in France, départements'' of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from wh ...
is a roughly triangular-shaped plateau with a maximum north–south length of and a maximum width of . The area is . The lowlands surrounding the steep-sided plateau average about in elevation above sea level while the top of the massif has an average elevation of about with a maximum elevation of at
Grand Veymont
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and commun ...
.
[Le Grand Veymont]
Peakbagger.com, retrieved 27 February 2012 Unlike a flat-topped
mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...
, three ridges run along the top of the massif from north to south. Only a few roads climb the steep slopes to the massif and the population lives in a few small villages. The porous
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
rocks and
karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
terrain result in an extensive system of caves, caverns and a scarcity of surface water in the form of streams, springs and shallow wells. These characteristics would be important during the battle as the Germans took control of the water sources and ambushed maquis seeking water.
The city of
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, which had a large German military garrison, is situated at the foot of the steep cliffs of the Vercors Massif at its northeastern edge. An important base was located at
Chabeuil, just below the south-western rim of the Vercors.
Background
Beginning in 1942, the (STO, Compulsory Work Service) resulted in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of young French men to Nazi Germany to work as
forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
for the German war effort. To avoid the STO, tens of thousands of men fled into the mountains and forests of France and joined 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 ...
, the rural resistance fighters against the German occupation. In 1943, three men, mountaineer
Pierre Dalloz, soldier
Alain Le Ray, and writer
Jean Prévost
Jean Prévost (13 June 1901 – 1 August 1944) was a French writer, journalist, and Maquis (World War II), Resistance fighter.
Biography
Born in Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, Prévost was educated (from 1907 to 1911) at the primary school in ...
planned to use the Vercors as a redoubt and a staging area for resistance to the German occupation. Following
Operation Anton
Case Anton (german: link=no, Fall Anton) was the military occupation of France carried out by Germany and Italy in November 1942. It marked the end of the Vichy regime as a nominally-independent state and the disbanding of its army (the severel ...
the German occupation of the (Free Zone) and the disbandment of the Vichy
Armistice Army
The Armistice Army or Vichy French Army (french: Armée de l'Armistice) was the common name for the armed forces of Vichy France permitted under the Armistice of 22 June 1940 after the French capitulation to Nazi Germany and Italy. It was off ...
, about fifty soldiers of the 11th
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers (; ) were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as men-at-arms and demi-lancers, discarding their lances and adoptin ...
Regiment arrived in the Vercors but kept themselves distinct from the maquis, whom they regarded as amateurs.
In August 1943,
Francis Cammaerts
Francis Charles Albert Cammaerts, DSO (16 June 1916 – 3 July 2006), code named Roger, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, ...
, code-name Roger, an agent of the British
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...
(SOE) organization, journeyed to the Vercors and met with French soldier
Eugène Chavant
Eugène Chavant was the founder of the French resistance organisation France Combat in 1942 and a prominent member of the French resistance. His nom de guerre was Clement, hence the "dit Clement" on the memorial to him in Grenoble. He was a member ...
. Cammaerts liked the Vercors plan. He foresaw the Vercors and other nearby mountainous areas as drop zones for allied paratroopers who would work with the local maquis to tie down German military forces and assist the
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
forces in the invasion of southern France (
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, th ...
) which was being planned. Cammaerts arranged for the first airdrop of arms and supplies by the SOE to the Vercors maquis on 13 November 1943. On 6 January 1944 a three-man "Union" mission, including US Marine
Peter Ortiz
Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz OBE (July 5, 1913 – May 16, 1988) was a United States Marine Corps colonel who received two Navy Crosses for extraordinary heroism as a major in World War II. He served in North Africa and Europe during the war, as a ...
from the American
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS), Colonel
Pierre Fourcaud
Pierre Fourcaud (27 March 1898 in St Petersburg – 2 May 1998 in Paris), was one of the first Frenchmen to rally to General Charles de Gaulle in July 1940.
He fought in the French army
History
Early history
The first permanent army, ...
, of the French secret service and Harry Thackthwaite of SOE, to evaluate the capabilities of the
Resistance in the Alpine region of France. Along with Cammaerts they organized, trained and armed the maquis to prepare them for an important role in support of the allied invasion of southern France. The Union group departed France in May 1944.
The Germans had no soldiers stationed on the Vercors Massif but in response to sabotage activities of the maquis conducted periodic raids usually launched from Grenoble. The first raid was on 25 November 1943 and a wireless operator was captured and another wounded. On 22 January 1944, a column of 300 German troops arrived at the
Grands Goulets
Les Grands Goulets ( French language: ''The Great Bottlenecks'') is a gorge in the western part of the Vercors Massif, located in the department of Drôme in Southeastern France. The gorge forms the head of the Vernaison Valley.
Between 1844 an ...
gorge on a punitive expedition in retaliation for the ambush of a German staff car a few days earlier. A small force of maquisards attempted to block their progress on the narrow road but were either outgunned or outflanked by Alpine troops at each blocking position that they established; twenty maquis were killed. When the Germans reached
Échevis on the plateau, they burned the village. The Germans also used the (a pro-German French paramilitary militia) to suppress the growing strength of the resistance on the Vercors massif. On 15 April 1944 a column of 25 vehicles attacked the village of
Vassieux Vassieux may refer to:
* Vassieux-en-Vercors, a municipality in the department of Drôme, France
* Vassieux (quarter), a neighborhood in Caluire-et-Cuire, France
* Jean Vassieux (1949-2021), a former ice hockey player in the French Ice Hockey Hall ...
, burning several farms and shooting or deporting some of the inhabitants.
Mixed signals
In the weeks leading up to the
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
, the invasion of Normandy, on 6 June 1944, the instructions given by the Allies to the maquis on the Vercors Massif were contradictory and inconsistent. Should the maquis rise against the Germans immediately after D-Day or wait until later when they could be of maximum help to the Allies? The contradictions are illustrated by the differences in the D-Day messages of the Allied commander
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
and Free French leader
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
. Eisenhower urged all the maquis in France to be cautious and patient; De Gaulle's emotional message was interpreted by the maquis as a call to take up arms immediately. On D-Day, Cammaerts on the Vercors Massif, gave the message to the maquis that, while clandestine sabotage should continue, they should remain hidden as "it would be at least two months before they would be needed". Cammaerts knew also that similar uprisings in other areas had been crushed by the Germans. To the contrary on June 8,
Marcel Descour, the regional leader of the French Resistance, instructed
Francois Huet, the new commander of the Vercors marquis, to mobilize. When Huet objected that he had neither the men nor the arms to defend Vercors, Descour assured him that the Allies would send reinforcements.
The Vercors maquis expected the invasion of southern France shortly after D-Day but it took place more than two months later. The maquis also anticipated incorrectly that Allied paratroopers would land on the massif to assist them and that they would be supplied with anti-tank and other heavy weapons to fight the Germans. "We shall not forget the bitterness of having been abandoned alone and without support in time of battle", wired the FFI commander to London.
The priorities of the Allied forces were the Normandy front and Operation Dragoon in Southern France, not the maquis of Vercors.
German attacks
German repression of the maquis on the Vercors Massif began on 11 June with a reconnaissance-in-force from the city of Grenoble to the village of
Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte
Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte is a commune in the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,083.
Demographics
1968 Winter Olympics
The commune hosted the ski jumping individua ...
. The small German force was repulsed by the maquis controlling the only road leading up the massif to Saint-Nizier. On 15 June the Germans returned with artillery and a larger force and forced the maquis to withdraw. During the remainder of June, the Germans sent several more probing attacks onto the Vercors. The Allies parachuted arms and supplies to the maquis on 27 June and sent an OSS team of 15 American soldiers commanded by Lt. Vernon G. Hoppers and a four-man SOE team headed by Major
Desmond Longe
Major Desmond Evelyn Longe, MC, DL, (born. 8 September 1914 – died. 19 February 1990) was a British Army Major, S.O.E agent and Commander of the Inter-Allied mission, Eucalyptus.
Early life and family
Longe was born the son of the Rev. ...
. Longe spoke little or no French and Cammaerts took offense at the unannounced arrival of Longe's team, calling them "unprofessional voyeurs" and asserting his authority as the senior British official in south-eastern France.
Free Republic of Vercors
While François Huet was attempting to create a conventional army from the maquis, journalist and De Gaulle supporter
Yves Farge
Yves Farge (19 August 1899, Salon-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône − 31 March 1953, Tbilisi) was a French journalist and politician.
Biography
Farge was a journalist for the ''Progrès de Lyon''. His colleague, Georges Altman, put him in conta ...
was organizing the politics of the Vercors resistance. On 3 July 1944 Farge and a committee proclaimed the
Free Republic of Vercors
The Battle of Vercors in July and August 1944 was between a rural group of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) maquis''">Maquis_(World_War_II).html" ;"title="'Maquis (World War II)">maquis''and the armed forces of Nazi Germany which had occup ...
, the first independent territory in France since the beginning of the German occupation in 1940. The Free Republic had its own flag, i.e., the
French Republic
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 ...
tricolour featuring the
Cross of Lorraine
The Cross of Lorraine (french: Croix de Lorraine, link=no), known as the Cross of Anjou in the 16th century, is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizont ...
and the "V" for Vercors and
Victory
The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...
(both used as a signature by de Gaulle's Free French) and its coat of arms, the
French Alpine Chamois. It was a short-lived republic; it ceased to exist before the end of the month.
Bastille Day
![B17-dropping-supplies-for-resistance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/B17-dropping-supplies-for-resistance.jpg)
On 14 July, 72 American
B-17
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
bombers dropped by parachute 870
CLE Canister
The CLE Canister, or CLE Container was a standardized cylindrical container used by the British during World War 2 to airdrop supplies to troops on the ground. The name initially derived from the Central Landing Establishment
The Central Landin ...
s containing weapons, including supplies and anti-tank
Bazooka
Bazooka () is the common name for a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the ...
s, to the Maquis of Vercors. It was a daylight drop and the Germans quickly detected it and launched air strikes to bomb the canisters, the maquis fighters attempting to recover them, and the village of Vassieux, destroying one-half of the 85 houses in the village. Working with the maquis to collect the canisters was a newly arrived SOE courier,
Christine Granville
Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, (, ; 1 May 1908 – 15 June 1952), also known as Christine Granville, was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. She became celebrated for her daring exploi ...
(Krystyna Skarbek), "World War II's most glamorous spy."
The large, daytime drop of weapons, instead of the usual smaller night drops, were criticized by the maquis leaders as igniting German worries that the Vercors would become a serious threat to their forces and lines of communications. The German response was to organize one of their largest anti-resistance military operations in France during World War II.
Battle
![Vassieux-en-Vercors Memorial de la Resistance img 5626](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Vassieux-en-Vercors_Memorial_de_la_Resistance_img_5626.jpg)
Lt. General was the commander of the German forces attacking the Vercors maquis. With eight to ten thousand soldiers, Pflaum established a cordon of soldiers around the massif to prevent the escape of maquis and on 21 July launched a full-scale attack. German columns advanced south along a road from Saint-Nizier in the northeast and from the south along a road from the town of
Die
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
. Alpine troops crossed the formidable, but thinly defended, eastern ramparts of the massif. The preparations being made for these assaults were readily visible to the maquis; the surprise element in the offensive was the landing of 200 airborne soldiers by glider near the village of Vassieux in the rear of the maquis defense. The glider landings were supported by warplanes bombing and strafing maquis positions.
By that first evening it was clear that the German assault was succeeding. The maquis commander Huet had a meeting of his leaders and they decided to continue to fight until defeat was inevitable and then disperse to the forest and mountains of the massif, anticipating that the Germans would soon withdraw. It was also decided that Huet's superior officer in the FFI,
Henri Zeller who was present at the meeting, would escape the Vercors with SOE agents Cammaerts, Granville, and wireless operator Auguste Floiras to coordinate the resistance in other areas. The maquis sent a bitter message to the Free French authorities in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
and to the SOE in London telling them that they were "criminals and cowards" for not sending help.
The last gasps of the organized resistance were on 23 July with the surviving maquis taking refuge in the forests or escaping to the lowlands surrounding the Vercors. The American team led by Hoppers and the SOE team led by Longe both escaped. (Longe and Huet ha already been dismissed by Cammaerts and the Maquis. They could not speak French and were not required.) Huet hid in the forests until 6 August when he attempted to rally his surviving forces and, reverting to guerilla tactics, on 8 August the maquis carried out several raids, claiming they killed 27 Germans. The long-expected allied landing in southern France took place on 15 August and the allied forces advanced rapidly northward, aided by the maquis. On 22 August the city of Grenoble was liberated from German control and maquis from the Vercors marched in the victory parade.
Casualties among the maquis during the battle were heavy with estimates of 659 maquis fighters and 201 civilians killed. German losses were much smaller, including 83 killed and missing.
German order of battle
According to the order of battle of 8 July 1944 from General Niehoff, ''Kommandant des'' Heeresgebietes Südfrankreich (military region of southern France), about operation ''Bettina'' against the Maquis du Vercors, it appears that the Germans deployed nearly 10,000 soldiers and policemen under General Karl Pflaum:
* Almost all the 157. Reserve-Division of the Wehrmacht:
** Four reserve mountain light infantry battalions (Btl. I./98, II./98, 99 and 100 from the Reserve-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 1);
** Two reserve infantry battalions (Btl. 179 and 199 from the Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment 157 – Btl. 217 remained in the southern Alps at Embrun);
** Two reserve artillery batteries (from Res.Geb.Art.Abt. 79 out of the Reserve-Artillerie-Regiment 7).
* Kampfgruppe "Zabel" (one infantry battalion from the 9. Panzer-Division and one ''
Ost-Bataillon'');
* Three ''Ost-Bataillonen'';
* About 200 ''
Feldgendarmen'';
* One security battalion (I./Sicherungs-Regiment 200);
* One police battalion (I./SS-Polizei-Regiment 19);
* About 400 paratroopers (special units from Fallschirm-Kampfgruppe Schäfer
[Geoffrey J. Thomas and Barry Ketley, ''KG 200: The Luftwaffe’s Most Secret Unit'', Hikoki Publications Ltd, Crowborough (East Sussex), 2003.]).
Airborne troops
According to the daily reports of OB West on 23 and 24 July 1944, forwarded by the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich, the following troops landed at Vassieux-en-Vercors on 21 and 23 July 1944.
[NARA T78 Roll 313] On 21 July 1944, about 200 men from
Fallschirm-
Bewährungstruppe (probationary troops) forming the Fallschirm-Kampfgruppe "Schäfer",
with several French volunteers (from the
Sipo
The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...
-
SD of Lyons or from the 8th Company of the
3rd Regiment "Brandenburg"), were airborne in 22
DFS-230
The DFS 230 was a German transport glider operated by the Luftwaffe in World War II. It was developed in 1933 by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS - "German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight") with Hans Jacobs as the head ...
gliders (each with 1 pilot and 9 soldiers) towed by
Dornier-17 bombers of I/Luftlandegeschwader 1, from Lyons-Bron to Vassieux-en-Vercors.
[Georg Schlaug, ''Die deutschen Lastensegler-Verbände 1937–1945'', Motorbuch Verlag, 1985.]
According to
Peter Lieb
Peter Lieb (born 1974) is a German military historian who specializes in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. He held positions at Institute of Contemporary History, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Center for Military History an ...
, two gliders crashed and eight of them landed a bit further on, so the first wave of assault consisted only of about a hundred soldiers. Lieb specifies that the commander of the Sipo-SD of Lyon (KDS), SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' (SS Lieutenant Colonel)
Werner Knab Werner Knab (1908–1945) was a German SS-''Sturmbannführer'' (major). He served at the German legation in Norway from 1939, and then as head of Gestapo in Norway from 1940 to 1942, during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. Among others, he ...
, was also airborne on Vassieux on 21 July. Shot and wounded, he was evacuated in a
Fieseler Fi 156
The Fieseler Fi 156 ''Storch'' (, " stork") was a German liaison aircraft built by Fieseler before and during World War II. Production continued in other countries into the 1950s for the private market. It was notable for its excellent short fi ...
''Storch'' on 24 July. He would have played an important part in the torture and the slaughter of the ''Maquisards'' of Vercors and the inhabitants of Vassieux.
On 23 July 1944, three
Go-242 gliders (each with 2 pilots and 21 soldiers, or weaponry and supplies) towed by
Heinkel-111 bombers, and 20 DFS-230 gliders
transported one ''Ost-Kompanie'' (
Ostlegionen
''Ostlegionen'' ("eastern legions"), ''Ost-Bataillone'' ("eastern battalions"), ''Osttruppen'' ("eastern troops"), and ''Osteinheiten'' ("eastern units") were units in the Army of Nazi Germany during World War II made up of personnel from the ...
: Russian, Ukrainian and Caucasian volunteers) and a paratrooper platoon
from Valence-Chabeuil to Vassieux. According to Peter Lieb, at least two DFS-230 and two Go-242 gliders landed a further on, only one Go-242 with weaponry and supplies landed on Vassieux, so the second wave of assault consisted only of about a hundred and fifty soldiers.
Thomas and Ketley
wrote that the Fallschirm-Kampfgruppe "Schäfer" was detached from
Kampfgeschwader 200
''Kampfgeschwader'' 200 (KG 200) (" irCombat Squadron 200") was a German ''Luftwaffe'' special operations unit during World War II. The unit carried out especially difficult bombing and transport operations and long-distance reconnaissance flight ...
on 8 June 1944. It was made up of volunteers out of Fallschirmjäger-Bewährungstruppe (probationary troops), mustered at Tangerhütte and trained for three months at Dedelstorf in order to launch an attack from gliders. Günther Gellermann says that the Fallschirm-Kampfgruppe "Schäfer" was under
Luftflotte A list of ''Luftwaffe "Luftflotten"'' (Air Fleets) and their locations between 1939 and 1945.
Timeline
ImageSize = width:580 height:auto barincrement:20
PlotArea = left:80 bottom:60 top:10 right:40
AlignBars = early
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy ...
3 command and no longer under Kampfgeschwader 200 command.
[Günther W. Gellermann, "Moskau ruft Heeresgruppe Mitte: Was nicht im Wehrmachtbericht stand - Die Einsätze des geheimen Kampfgeschwaders 200 im Zweiten Weltkrieg", Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz, 1988.]
In fiction
The Maquis du Vercors is depicted and veterans act in
Pierre Schoendoerffer
Pierre Schoendoerffer (french: Pierre Schœndœrffer; 5 May 1928 – 14 March 2012) was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was ...
's 2002 feature film ''Above the Clouds'' (''Là-Haut''), and in the third season of the British TV programme ''
Wish Me Luck
''Wish Me Luck'' is a British television drama about the exploits of British women undercover agents during the Second World War. The series was made by London Weekend Television for the ITV network between 17 January 1988 and 25 February 199 ...
'', first broadcast in 1990. The battle and the ''maquisards'' of Vercors also prominently feature in
Frank Yerby
Frank Garvin Yerby ( – ) was an American writer, best known for his 1946 historical novel ''The Foxes of Harrow''.
Early life
Yerby was born in Augusta, Georgia, on September 5, 1916, the second of four children of Rufus Garvin Yerby (1886– ...
's 1974 novel ''The Voyage Unplanned''.
Documentary films
In 1948, French director
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Jean-Paul Étienne Dreyfus, better known as Jean-Paul Le Chanois (25 October 1909 – 8 July 1985), was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. His film '' ...Sans laisser d'adresse'' won the Golden Bear (Comedies) award at the 1st ...
made ' (''In the Heart of the Thunderstorm''), a documentary about the French Resistance during the Second World War. The film, composed of Allied clandestine film recordings and German newsreels, focuses on the battle of the Vercors Plateau during July 1944.
[IMDb - Au coeur de l'orage (1948) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242291/]
See also
*
Maquis des Glières
The Maquis des Glières was a Free French Resistance group, which fought against the 1940–1944 German occupation of France in World War II. The name is also given to the military conflict that opposed Resistance fighters to German, Vichy and ...
*
Maquis du Mont Mouchet
The Maquis du Mont Mouchet were a group of French resistance fighters during the Second World War that were based at Mont Mouchet.
The Germans, having discovered the maquis, made several attacks up until May 1944 with about 3,000 men and using a ...
*
Maquis de l'Oisans
*
Operation Rösselsprung (1944)
Operation Rösselsprung (german: Unternehmen Rösselsprung, links=no, , Knight's move) was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps and collaborationist forces on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Parti ...
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
{{Liberation of France
V
V
Free French military personnel of World War II
V
Vercors
V
V
V
V
V
Nazi war crimes in France