Vercors Plateau

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DEM of the Vercors massif

The Vercors is a plateau in the départements of Isère and Drôme in Eastern France. It is one of the ranges that form the French Prealps. It lies west from the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Drac and Isère. The cliffs at its eastern edge face the city of Grenoble. It comprises several resorts for cross-country skiing.

The highest summits of the Vercors are:

Grand Veymont (2346 m)
Grande Moucherolle (2284 m)
Mont Aiguille (2086 m)
Moucherotte (1901 m)

[edit] World War II maquis

Registration for members of the maquis of Vercors, exposed in Les Invalides

During the German occupation of France in World War II, many members of a maquis of the French resistance died fighting in 1944 on the plateau.

This followed the declaration of freedom from the German occupation in some towns and villages on the plateau. In June 1944 it was proclaimed the Republic of Vercors, the first democratic place in France since the beginning of the German occupation in 1940. On June 5, 1944, the Free French government in London called upon the Vercors people to take weapons and slow down the German army on its way to Normandy. This was part of a wider series of resistance uprisings.

In response, German parachute and glider borne troops landed on the plateau (owing to the difficulty of access to the plateau by road) and brutally suppressed the uprising, terrorising the population of the plateau with rape and torture. 600 maquisards died.

According to the French military historian Pierre Montagnon («Les maquis de la Libération», Pygmalion, 2000) : about 8000 German and foreign soldiers and policemen under general Karl Pflaum (157.Reserve-Division) =

4 reserve mountain light infantry battalions (from the Reserve-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 1) ;
2 reserve infantry battalions (from the Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment 157) ;
3 eastern battalions (Ost-Legion) ;
2 reserve artillery batteries (from the Reserve-Artillerie-Regiment 7) ;
about 400 paratroopers («Brandenburg» special units) ;
about 200 Feldgendarmen ;
some units from a security regiment (Sicherungs-Regiment 200) and a police regiment (SS-Polizei-Regiment 19).

NO soldiers from the Waffen-SS.

Maquisards appealed to Free French agencies based in the United Kingdom to supply arms and heavier weaponry to counter the German action, but none was forthcoming.

It has been suggested that political motives of De Gaulle among others were the reason behind this failure to support the Vercors uprising, although the logistical difficulties for the Allies in sending supplies when the war effort was concentrated on D-Day probably had more influence.