Battle of Valchevrière

On July 22, 1944, the Germans launched a new assault on Valchevrière, a village under the protection of Captain Goderville and his group of French Resistance fighters. The maquisards' mission was to deny the Germans access to the west and …

1944-07-22

5973

On July 22, 1944, the Germans launched a new assault on Valchevrière, a village under the protection of Captain Goderville and his group of French Resistance fighters. The maquisards' mission was to deny the Germans access to the west and south of Correçon-en-Vercors. Well entrenched in the natural strong point of "Le Belvédère", the troops of Lieutenant Chabal at first successfully repelled their attackers. But the next morning, while their positions were shelled by a deluge of mortars, German troops managed to infiltrate the nearby woods despite incoming fire and mines placed by the Resistance. Valchevrière was soon captured and burned to the ground. The Germans then simultaneously penetrated onto the Belvédère and in the Pas de la Sambue. The combat raged all morning, but eventually the Resistance positions fell, one by one, buried under the numerical superiority of their opponents. Faced with a now totally desperate situation, Captain Goderville ordered his remaining maquisards to fall back. The mopping up of Resistance troops out of the Vercors had begun.

Valchevrière, France

The Maquis du Vercors was a rural group of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) (maquis) that resisted 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. Initially the maquis carried out only sabotage and partisan operations against the Germans, but after the Normandy Invasion on 6 June 1944, the leadership of an army of about 4,000 maquis declared the "Free Republic of Vercors," raised the French flag, and attempted to create a conventional army to oppose the German occupation.

Wikipedia: Maquis du Vercors

German

French

Game Type: Standard

Board Type: Countryside

Website Access: Classified