Vercors Resistance Memorial, Vassieux

Surrounded by impressive cliffs, Vercors highlands are hard to access and easy to defend.

Following the occupation of France by German forces, many French "Maquisards" (also called "Resistants") escaped to these impregnable mountains. The "Plan Montagnard" aimed at using the Vercors mountain as a retrenched camp backing attacks on the surrounding plains and valleys. The camp would be easily supplied by air : the Maquisards even built an air field.

Till 1944, around 400 Resistants gathered in 6 camps located on different points of the Vercors highlands.

Shortly after the Normandy landings of June 1944, the Resistants of the Vercors awaited the arrival of the Allies in the region. Many men joined the Resistants, and the total forces counted 4,000 men, but most of them had no war experience.

"They waited for their salvation from the sky, but it is from the sky’s that death emerged"... Indeed, instead of Allied forces supply, it is ultimately German bombers and paratroopers who emerged from the sky...

The German troops destroyed whole villages - men, women and children alike - and burned houses. Around 600 civilians and Resistants were killed.