The Maquis de Saint-Marcel was a force of French resistance fighters, 3000 men with 200 Free French SAS (Special Air Service), during World War II operating in Brittany, Morbihan. It was created just before the Normandy landings with the objectives of preventing German army reinforcements from reaching the coast, thus facilitating the task of the allied landing forces.
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. The SAS was founded in 1941 as a regiment, and later reconstituted as a corps in 1950. The unit undertakes a number of roles including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage rescue. Much of the information and actions regarding the SAS is highly classified, and is not commented on by the British government or the Ministry of Defence due to the sensitivity of their operations.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Morbihan is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan, the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline. It is noted for its Carnac stones. These predate and are more extensive than the ancient Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire, England that is more familiar to English speakers.
The Maquis de Saint-Marcel lasted only a very short time. It had been infiltrated by German spies, allowing the Germans to attack it in an ambush on 18 June 1944. After it was dissolved, the remaining resistance fighters resumed contact without forming a new maquis.
An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which combatants take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops. Ambushes have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare. In the 20th century, an ambush might involve thousands of soldiers on a large scale, such as over a choke point such as a mountain pass, or a small irregular band or insurgent group attacking a regular armed force patrol. Theoretically, a single well-armed and concealed soldier could ambush other troops in a surprise attack.
The Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters, called maquisards, during the Nazi Occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of men and women who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labor for Germany. To avert capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups.
Operation Torch was an Anglo–American invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. It was aimed at reducing pressure on Allied forces in Egypt, and enabling an invasion of Southern Europe. It also provided the ‘second front’ which the Soviet Union had been requesting since it was invaded by the Germans in 1941. The region was dominated by the Vichy French, officially in collaboration with Germany, but with mixed loyalties, and reports indicated that they might support the Allied initiative. The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanding the operation, planned a three-pronged attack, aimed at Casablanca (Western), Oran (Center) and Algiers (Eastern), in advance of a rapid move on Tunis.
The French Resistance was the collection of French movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women, who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics, and also citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists and communists.
Villard-de-Lans is a commune in the Isère department of the Auvergne-Rhones-Alpes region in southeastern France. The town is also situated in the Vercors Massif. It was the administrative centre of the eponymous canton until the departmental elections of 2015. After the elections, Villard-de-Lans and the communes of its former canton were all incorporated into the new canton of Fontaine-Vercors. The town remains the seat of the Community of Communes in the Vercors Massif (CCMV).
The Military Administration in France was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called zone occupée was renamed zone nord in November 1942, when the previously unoccupied zone in the south known as zone libre was also occupied and renamed zone sud.
The Maquis des Glières was a Free French Resistance group, which fought against the 1940–1944 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.
The Maquis du Vercors was a rural group of the French Forces of the Interior resistance (maquis) that fought the 1940–1944 German occupation of France in World War II. The Maquis du Vercors used the prominent scenic plateau known as the Massif du Vercors as a refuge. Many members of the maquis, known as maquisards, died fighting in 1944 in the Vercors Plateau.
Saint-Marcel is a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France.
Anterrieux is a commune in the Cantal department in the Auvergne region of southern central France.
The Maquis de Saffré was one of the maquis groups of French resistance fighters active in the Loire-Atlantique region, in the triangle formed by the communes of Héric, Nort-sur-Erdre et Saffré.
The Maquis du Limousin was one of the largest Maquis groups of French resistance fighters.
The Maquis de Vabre were an organisation of French Resistance fighters in the east of the Tarn department during the Second World War, which was gradually built up by local militants. They were officially recognised in December 1943, affiliated to the Armée secrète under the name Maquis Pol Roux (its original organiser, Guy de Rouville, had the codename Pol Roux. Approximately 450 maquis fighters were enrolled, organised, trained and armed in anticipation of the allied landings.
Otto Kühne was a German communist militant, who led a maquis group of German antifascist fighters in the French region of Lozère in 1943 and 1944 during World War II.
Maria Justeau (1912–2008) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Along with her husband, Eugene Justeau, she saved the lives of many American, Canadian, and French soldiers in the area of Saint-Seglin, Brittany, France. She is among the few women to have received the "Croix de Guerre". She was also awarded an official recognition from the SAS parachutists.
The Maquis du Haut-du-Bois, also known as the Maquis d'Éloyes, was a combat unit of the French forces of the interior within the Maquis des Vosges. The unit made a large contribution towards liberating the Éloyes region. Armed operations by the maquisards were supported by regular distributions of tracts and newspapers calling out to the resistance.
Émile Coulaudon, known as Colonel Gaspard, was one of the principal leaders of the French Resistance in Auvergne during the Second World War.
Adrien Pommier was a member of the French Resistance during World War II.
The Dortan massacre was a massacre in which approximately 35 French civilians were killed by Soviet Wehrmacht volunteers in the village of Dortan, Ain during World War II. It was perpetrated by Volunteer Cossack-Stamm-Regiment 5, part of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division, in 12–21 July 1944 during Operation Treffenfeld. It was part of a wider German anti-partisan offensive against the French Maquis de l'Ain et du Haut-Jura, which staged a massive uprising in mid-1944 along with other French resistance groups.
