Maquis des Glières

Coordinates: 45°57′54″N 06°20′02″E / 45.96500°N 6.33389°E / 45.96500; 6.33389
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Battle of Glières
Part of
Glières Plateau, Bornes Massif, Haute-Savoie, France
Result

German and Vichy French victory

  • Propaganda boost for French Resistance
Belligerents Free France French Resistance

 Germany
 Vichy France

Commanders and leaders Free France Tom Morel 
Free France Maurice Anjot  Nazi Germany Karl Pflaum
Vichy France Georges Lelong
Jean de Vaugelas
Jacques de BernonvilleStrength circa 450 maquisards (including 56 Spanish fighters and 80 Francs-tireurs) over 1,400 Vichy policemen
700 militia (of the Franc-Gardes)
3,000 German soldiersCasualties and losses 140 killed or deported 21 killed

The Maquis des Glières was a

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 Milice forces.[1][2]

Resistance

At the end of 1943, the

Glières Plateau, a high remote mountain table close to Lake Annecy
, was chosen.

On 31 January 1944, Lieutenant

Chasseur alpin from the 27th chasseurs alpins battalion (mountain light infantry) in Annecy, was commissioned to collect parachute drops from the Royal Air Force (RAF) with 100 men. Captain Rosenthal, the Free French representative, convinced the other staff members to regroup the majority of maquisards
on the Glières Plateau, to establish a base to attack the Germans and carry out sabotage. Because the Allies doubted the value of the French Resistance, the French considered it a political necessity to show they were capable of undermining German military power in France.

Repression

In January 1944, a state of siege was declared in Haute-Savoie. Anyone found carrying arms or assisting the

Bren light machine guns and Mills bombs
(hand grenades).

On the night of 9/10 March, the commander-in-chief, Lt. Tom Morel was killed in a skirmish with the Vichy forces. On 12 March, after the largest Allied parachute drop, the Germans started to bomb the area with ground attack aircraft. The Milice (French paramilitary police) staged several attacks which failed. On 23 March, three battalions from the German 157th Reserve Division and two Order Police battalions, composed of more than 4,000 men, with heavy machine guns, 80 mm mortars, 75 mm mountain guns, 150 mm howitzers and armoured cars, concentrated in Haute-Savoie.

Retreat

Present day image of the Monument des Glières

On 26 March 1944, after another air raid and shelling, the Germans took the offensive. They split their attacking parties into three groups (Kampfgruppen) with an objective for each group. Reconnaissance was carried out by ski patrols dressed in white camouflage. One of the patrols from a Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) platoon, made an attack on the main exit from the plateau and captured an advanced post in the rear. Sustaining the attack from about fifty German soldiers, eighteen maquisards fought and resisted into the night but were outnumbered and overwhelmed, though most of them escaped under cover of darkness. Captain Anjot ordered the Glières battalion to retreat. In the days that followed, he and almost all his officers, as well as 120 maquisards, were found dead. They had been killed in battle or, if taken prisoner, had been tortured, shot or deported. The Germans considered the maquisards terrorists.

The region of Savoie had suffered badly, but the defeat was turned into a propaganda victory and gave a boost to the French Resistance in the spring of 1944.

References

External links

See also

45°57′54″N 06°20′02″E / 45.96500°N 6.33389°E / 45.96500; 6.33389