Contest in the Clouds

Information reached Britain and America that a great and glorious uprising had taken place in south east France. Glières had become an important element in the psychological warfare. To honour the French Resistance, the new leader, Captain Anjot, an experienced officer, would fight in the face of defeat but his …

1944-03-26

A023

Information reached Britain and America that a great and glorious uprising had taken place in south east France. Glières had become an important element in the psychological warfare. To honour the French Resistance, the new leader, Captain Anjot, an experienced officer, would fight in the face of defeat but his aim was to save his men's lives.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 with a Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) platoon, made an attack on the main exit of 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. At ten o'clock, Captain Anjot decided honor had been satisfied and 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.

Plateau Glieres, France

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. At the end of 1943, the French Resistance in the French Alps of Haute-Savoie needed arms. To find good drop zones to supply the Maquis with arms and sabotage equipment, a mission composed of Richard Harry Heslop from the Special Operations Executive and Captain Rosenthal from the Free French Forces was sent from London. The Glières Plateau, a high remote mountain table close to Lake Annecy, was chosen.

German

Partisan Maquis

Scenario Type = Standard