Maquis des Glières
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (June 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2020) |
Battle of Glières | |
---|---|
Part of | |
Result |
German and Vichy French victory
|
Maurice Anjot †
Georges Lelong
Jean de Vaugelas
Jacques de Bernonville
700 militia (of the Franc-Gardes)
3,000 German soldiers
The Maquis des Glières was a
Resistance
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2022) |
At the end of 1943, the
On 31 January 1944, Lieutenant
Repression
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2022) |
In January 1944, a state of siege was declared in Haute-Savoie. Anyone found carrying arms or assisting the
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
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2022) |
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
- The Battle of Glières
- National cemetery of the Glieres
- Resistance Museum of Morette La Balme-de-Thuy
See also
- Maquis du Vercors
- Maquis du Mont Mouchet
- French Resistance
- Free French Forces
- French Forces of the Interior
- Liberation of Paris
- Maquis de l'Oisans