105 The French Resistance, After the Battle, AFTER THE BATTLE
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//-->NUMBER 105Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. RamseyEditor: Karel MargryPublished byBattle of Britain International Ltd.,Church House, Church Street,London E15 3JA, EnglandTelephone: 0181-534 8833Fax: 0181-555 7567E-mail: afterthebattle@mcmail.comWeb site: www.afterthebattle.mcmail.comPrinted in Great Britain byTrafford Print Colour Ltd.,Shaw Wood Way, Doncaster DN2 5TB.© Copyright 1999After the Battleis published on the 15thof February, May, August and November.United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution:Lakeside Publishing Services Ltd, Unit 1D,Tideway Industrial Estate, Kirtling Street,London SW8 5BPUnited States Distribution and Subscriptions:RZM Imports, PO Box 995, Southbury, CT, 06488Telephone: 1-203-264-0774Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions:Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 1 Northrup Crescent,St. Catharines, Ontario L2M 6P5.Telephone: (905) 937 3100 Fax: (905) 937 1760Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues:Technical Book and Magazine Company, Pty, Ltd.,295 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000.Telephone: 03 9 663 3951 Fax: 03 9 663 2094New Zealand Distribution:Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, P.O. Box 24486,Royal Oak, Auckland 1030 New Zealand.Telephone: 021 627 870 Fax: 9-6252817Italian Distribution:Tuttostoria, Casella Postale 395, 1-43100 Parma.Telephone: 0521 292 733, Telex 532274 EDIALB IDutch Language Edition:Quo Vadis, Postbus 3121, 3760 DC Soest.Telephone: 035 6018641Resistance was a refusal to accept the finality of the military defeat of 1940; a refusalto accept that Vichy was the legitimate voice of France; a refusal to accept Vichy pol-icy of collaboration. As to its chronological extent, the 'Resistance' began with thesigning of the armistice in June 1940 and ended late in August 1944 when most ofFrance was freed from the Germans. 'Resisters' were those French men and womenwho decided to keep on fighting the Germans in violation of the armistice.EVIANTHONONCONTENTSTHE FRENCH RESISTANCEPetain and VichyDe GaulleResistance StartedThe Communists join in1942: DevelopmentThe Occupation of the Zone LibreThe ‘STO’ and the Maquis1943: UnificationDe Gaulle or Giraud?Glières‘And we’ll come from the shadow’BrittanyParisSouthern FranceAn Assessment46681011121320223437383954GENEVAANNEMASSESAINT-JULIENBELLEGARDELA ROCHE-SUR-FORONBONNEVILLECLUSESGLIÈRES PLATEAUANNECYCHAMONIXFront cover:This memorial in Fessy Cemeteryrecalls the deaths of seven members of the FTPresistance organisation killed in Foges farm(see page 20).Centre Pages:In March 1944, the plateau atGlières was occupied by more than 450 resis-tance fighters in open defiance of the occupa-tion forces. All the chalets in the picture wereburned down by the Germans, the second onthe left being the Resistance HQ.Inset:OnSeptember 2, 1973, André Malraux inaugu-rated this monument at Glières built near thespot where 'Tom' was buried. Some 25 metreshigh, it is the work of Emile Gilioli.Back Cover:Today, in France thousands ofmemorials mark the exact spots where mendied violently for their country — like theseplaques pictured in Thonon.Acknowledgements:The Editor would like tothank the Association des Glières, the MuséeHaut-Savoyard de la Résistance and the veter-ans of the FFI Roland Boisier, Joseph Diot,Robert Poirson, Marcel Roy, Léon Szafranskiand Pierre Tortel for their help and their per-sonal accounts. We also would like to thanklocal historians Robert Amoudruz, ClaudeAntoine, Michel Germain and Pierre Mouthon.We are also indebted to SAF Hélicoptères whokindly provided us with a flight over the Glièresplateau. SAF provides sightseeing flights overthe Alps. Tel (from UK): 033 4 79 38 48 29.FAVERGESWe have chosen to illustrate this account of Resistance in France by spotlightingevents in one department of France, the Haute-Savoie. The Resistance was in actionall over France and, in that respect, Haute-Savoie was no different to the other 90departments, but one of the most significant incidents took place here: the assem-bling of 500 resisters at Glières in March 1944 in open defiance of the occupyingforces. Also, Haute-Savoie is one of the many departments which was completely lib-erated by the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) alone: when Allied forces, havinglanded in the Riviera, reached the area, all the German occupation forces had beenkilled or captured. On the other hand, attacks against the railway lines were of lessimportance in south-eastern France for troop and supply trains here were really fewcompared to the lines feeding the main bodies of the German armies in the West.Also, intelligence activities here did not have the same significance as those in areascontaining military sites of major importance such as airfields, U-Boat pens orV-weapon installations. Nevertheless, the Glières operation alone puts Haute-Savoieinto a special category of its own in the league table of French Resistance.2THE FRENCH RESISTANCEOn May 10, 1940, the Wehrmachtlaunched its lightning attack in the West andin a little over one month, the Germanarmies had conquered the Netherlands andBelgium; the British Expeditionary Forcehad withdrawn across the Channel, and theFrench Army had been defeated. By mid-June, the Germans were occupying half ofFrance and they would soon take over therest of the country. Proposals for the forma-tion of a ‘redoubt’ in Brittany were dismissedas militarily impractical, and on June 16Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned.Thereupon, Président Albert Lebrun askedthe 84-year-old Maréchal Philippe Pétain,Vice-Premier in the late Cabinet, to form anew government. Little time was lost and at 1a.m. on June 17 a request for an armisticewas transmitted to Germany via the SpanishEmbassy. At midday, Pétain spoke on theradio to tell the French people of thearmistice demand: ‘With a tight heart, I tellyou today that we must stop fighting’.The following morning, having learnt thatPétain had applied for armistice terms, theUnder-Secretary for Defence of the lateReynaud Cabinet, Général Charles deGaulle, left Bordeaux aboard a British air-craft bound for London. That afternoon, hebroadcast over the BBC an exhortation tohis stunned countrymen: ‘This war is not set-tled by the battle of France’, he said. He thencalled on every Frenchmen wherever theywere to join him to continue the fight.The armistice was signed on June 22.Three-fifths of France, including Paris andthe entire Atlantic coast, were to be occupiedby German troops in order ‘to safeguard theinterests of the German Reich’. All prisonersof war were to remain in captivity until theconclusion of a peace and, save for a smallbody of men, the armed forces of Francewere to be demobilised and disarmed. Thecease-fire went into effect at 12.35 a.m. onJune 25.Following the armistice terms, France wasdivided in half by the ‘Demarcation Line’some 1,000 kilometres long. North of it, thecountry was under German occupation whilethe south remained ‘free’, hence its name‘Zone Libre’. Within a matter of weeks, theGermans had turned the Demarcation LineBy Jean Paul Palludinto a formal frontier and the passage of menand matériel was controlled: to cross over,one needed to have a special pass issued bythe Germans.June 18, 1940. 'Is the last word uttered? Is the defeat final? No!' An uncompromisinghostility towards Germany and an unshakeable faith in the greatness of France wassoon to win Général de Gaulle a position of military and political ascendancy as thearchitect of the French revival. More and more he would become the focal pointaround which the Resistance organised itself. (ECPArmées)3To police the border with Switzerland, the Germans decided tooccupy a stretch of territory along the border as far south asthe Rhône river. These pictures of the 'Demarcation Line' werePETAIN AND VICHYOverwhelmed by the extent of the defeat,the political leaders of France resigned andon July 10 the National Assembly (the Sen-ate and Chamber sitting together) voteditself out of existence. All power was vestedin Maréchal Pétain in order that he promul-gate a new constitution to be ratified by thenation. The Senate and Chamber were abol-ished, local elections were suppressed, andcentrally-controlled organisations derivingtheir authorities directly from Pétain super-seded the institutions of local government.The Third Republic was dead and the Vichyregime was born.At first, Pétain had in mind to return toParis but the Germans were not favourableto the idea and instead he chose to establishhis government in Vichy, a spa town in theZone Libre. Pétain held authoritarian andreactionary views and soon the Vichy motto‘Work, Family, Homeland’ replaced therepublican slogan ‘Freedom, Equality, Fra-ternity’. However, the changes were not allsymbolic and thousands of mayors, munici-pal councillors and civil servants wereremoved from office. Many political figuresof the Third Republic who were seen asbeing responsible for the moral decline ofFrance and the consequent defeat werearrested, among them the former Prime Min-isters Léon Blum and Paul Reynaud. As tothe Communist Party, which had been out-lawed in the autumn of 1939 for its pacifiststance, Vichy immediately made clear itsferocious opposition. From the summer of1940, a series of decrees were announced,one excluding foreigners while others sup-pressed the trade unions and the Freema-sons. In October, another decree concernedthe Jewish community and those Jews whowere not French for five generations at leastwere barred from teaching, banking and thecivil service. Jews of foreign extraction wereliable to be confined to camps or put underhouse arrest (this fate had befallen some35,000 by the end of the year).The armistice had left Pétain with the con-trol and administration of the southern, ‘free’part of France and, on paper, the power toadministrate the occupied northern part.Also, in spite of feverish efforts by GreatBritain, most of the French colonial posses-sions in Africa and South-East Asia remainedobedient to Pétain, his administration havingalso been recognised as the legal governmentof France by all the major countries in theworld, including the USA and USSR. (USdiplomatic representation was maintained atVichy after Pearl Harbor.) The French Army,reduced to 100,000 men, was powerless but4taken in Bellegarde, at the very end of this zone, on the 'tram'bridge over the Valserine river. The German photographerstood at the northern, occupied, end. (ECPArmées)million prisoners were detained in Germany,causing an acute labour shortage to factoriesand farms. (The Germans were soon to usethe POWs as hostages to exert pressures onVichy.) To aggravate the situation, thearmistice terms required that France coverthe costs of the occupying German armiesuntil a final peace treaty was signed. In July,the Germans indicated what that cost wouldthe Fleet was mostly intact and under Frenchflag. It suited the Germans perfectly to havePétain as the figurehead of the French gov-ernment and, careful not to needlessly alien-ate French public opinion, they even compro-mised on some points.Whatever semblance of power Pétainmight have, France was in a disastrous situa-tion. Huge losses had been sustained and 1�½Maréchal Pétain and Amiral François Darlan paid a visit toHaute-Savoie on September 23, 1941 (the previous day, theyhad visited Savoie). The Préfet, Edouard Dauliac, greeted thembe: a daily compensation of 400 millionFrancs! Vichy argued, pointing out that sucha huge amount would pay for the mainte-nance of millions of soldiers, but to no avail.In addition, although the civil administrationremained nominally under the control of theVichy government it was, in varying degrees,quickly subjected to German supervision.Soon, industry, banking and business wereunder their overall control and raw materialsand manufactured stocks were levied on aconsiderable scale. Day after day, a steadydrain of goods and money sapped thestrength of France and the country was soonshort of food, coal, clothes and other basiccommodities.On October 24, on his way back from ameeting with Generalissimo Franco of Spain,Hitler halted his train at Montoire (50 kilo-metres north of Tours) to see Pétain. Themeeting at the station ended without anydefinite outcome and Pétain later broadcastthat ‘a collaboration between our two coun-tries has been discussed and I have acceptedthe principle’. ‘Collaboration’ meant on theVichy side, bargaining and compromising totry to save as much as possible for France,but to the Germans, it meant acquiescence toGerman demands, threats and blackmail.Meanwhile, individual Frenchmen, bemusedby defeat, passively accepted Pétain and hisregime. The belief that Britain was about tobe defeated was commonplace and theacceptance of Hitler’s orders seemedunavoidable.at the Hôtel de Ville of Annecy whereupon the band struck upthe old anti-German patriotic songYou'll not have Alsace andLorraineto much cheering. (Archives Départementales)Not all Frenchmen accepted Pétain and his regime passivelyand on the night of August 10/11, 1940, hand-written placardswere posted up in the main street of Annecy: 'De Gaulle willwin! Frenchmen are those who defend the country, not thosewho sell out France!' More from the same hand appeared dur-ing the night of August 23/24: 'De Gaulle is defending France.The senile men of Vichy are selling her!' The first issue of theclandestine newspaperLibertéappeared on November 25,1940. It was three sheets, well edited and printed, and it wassent by post or put through letter boxes. One of those who dis-tributedLibertéin Annecy, M. de Mollerat, was soon arrestedby the Vichy authorities and sentenced to one month imprison-ment. Nevertheless, decidedly anti-German, anti-Vichy, andpro-British,Libertékept on appearing.5
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