Osprey's Vercors 1944

If you watch enough old movies, you will get the impression that the French Resistance was an active force, blowing up installations and snuffing Nazis right from the beginning of the occupation. However, it was not like that. It takes time to get things organized and to get equipped. There is also the realization that the German military did not look kindly on these sorts of actions and often was quite ruthless in their attempts to prevent these sorts of occurrences. Add to that the fact that there were several different groups, each with their own political agenda, with the Gaulists and the communists being two of the larger groups as the war continued. This meant that there was little cooperation between the two.

The French population often wanted little to do with these people as not only helping them, but there mere presence could bring disaster if not death. For that reason, these groups often hid in areas where there was a minimal German presence. One of these areas was the Vercors region of France. This was in the Alps near the border of Switzerland and Italy. It is now a thriving skiing area with the town of Grenoble one that most will recognize.

The major group in this area were the FFI. They tried very hard to mold themselves as real military wearing uniforms and having a pseudo-rank structure in hopes that it would curry them assistance from the Allies. In fact, it was not unusual to have Allied military personnel to be in there as advisers, for most of the resistance folks were eager, but woefully untrained. It may come as a bit of a surprise, but from what I gather, the largest contingent of US Marines on Northwest European soil were a handful of men sent in to assist the Maquis during this time period.

After the Normandy invasion, it seemed like the right time to try to liberate this portion of France. Vercors was basically a broad alpine plain with offered a lot of areas for defense and so planning was started in a hope to drive out what few Germans were there. However, as one sees while reading the book, all did not go well. The group had to fight off regular German Army units, the Germans had full control of the air and even sent in Fallshirmjaeger units in gliders during the height of the uprising. The Allies were lax in supplying equipment and sent in no heavy weapons at all, not even mortars. The truth is that the FFI's timing was poor as the Allies were gathering together for the invasion of Southern France. This left little available for the FFI. One thing it did do was pull German units away from the southern coast and make the landing there relatively easy, but it doomed the resistance and its efforts.

In addition to the story of the Vercors campaign, this book also goes into the campaign in the nearby Tarentaise Valley, a campaign that also did not go as planned, and for various reasons, the biggest of all being the lack of experienced leadership. It makes for a fascinating read that shows that determination is not all that is required to succeed in battle and while eventually things turned out well (the Allies did drive the Germans out of France), things did not go as planned for the Maquis.

It is a book that I found to be quite interesting and one that I am sure you will enjoy as well. 

March 2013

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