in London’, while the main Algiers organization for directing the Resistance in southern France, the Special Projects Operations Centre (SPOC), becomes just ‘Algiers’.
For the same reason and in the hope it will make them more accessible to the reader, I have tried to simplify the references by providing abbreviations for the main archives which I have consulted (such as TNA for the British National Archives at Kew, and NARA for the US National Archives and Records Administration). A key giving each of these abbreviations can be found at the start of the Notes section.
I first became fascinated by the wartime epic of the Vercors in the early 1970s when I worked in the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. I was drawn to it because of the tragedy and the horror of the story. But also because it struck me as a powerful example of a subject that has always fascinated me: the consequences for those on the front lines of conflict when those at the top know too little about the harsh realities of war, or think too little about what their decisions mean on the ground.
This is a French story, of course. But it is also a very human epic which has lessons for us all. The strong are not always wise. The simple not always stupid. The weak do not always lose. In most cases, the final determiner of outcomes rests, not with machines, or might, or well-laid plans, but with how individuals behave at the moment of trial.
This story has another function too. In this, the year of the seventieth anniversary of D-Day, it is as well to remember that the Normandy invasion was about more than what happened on the Normandy beaches, most of which is minutely documented and recorded. This is the hidden story of D-Day, when thousands of ordinary, untrained and in most cases crudely armed French men and women put their lives at risk quite as much as those who stormed the beaches, because they were determined to help throw out a hated occupier and join the fight to liberate their country.
BENNES, Robert (BOB)*
Zeller’s radio operator and commander of La Britière radio house.
BILLON, Francis (TARTANE)
Parachuted in with Tournissa. Injured. One of those shot at the Grotte de la Luire.
BLAIN, Léa
Cipher and coding assistant to Eucalyptus. Runner for Jean Prévost.
BLANC, Paul (JEAN-PAUL)
Commander of the Trièves Maquis unit on the Pas de l’Aiguille.
BOIRON, Victor
Tractor driver in Vassieux.
BOISSIÈRE, Gustave (BOIS)
Speleologist and liaison officer to the Eucalyptus Mission.
BORDENAVE, André (DUFAU)
Commander of 6th BCA.
BOURDEAUX, Louis (FAYARD)
Commander of a Maquis company in Royans.
BOURGEOIS, Maurice (BATAILLE)
Maquis leader who accompanied Vernon Hoppers on the Lus-la-Croix-Haute ambush.
BOURGÈS-MAUNOURY, Maurice (POLYGONE)
Military delegate of R1, then National Military delegate.
BOUSQUET, René (CHABERT)
Huet’s deputy.
BUCKMASTER, Colonel Maurice
Head of SOE’s F Section.
CAMMAERTS, Francis (ROGER)
SOE F Section Organizer of Jockey circuit.
CATHALA, Gaston (GRANGE)
Maquis leader in the west of the plateau.
CHAMBONNET, Albert (DIDIER)
Commander of the Secret Army in the Lyon area.
CHAMPETIER DE RIBES, Maude (DANIELLE)
Milice spy and mistress of Dagostini.
CHAVANT, Eugène (CLÉMENT)
(Le Patron) Political leader of the Vercors.
CONSTANS, Jean (SAINT-SAUVEUR)
Responsible for assistance to the Vercors in Algiers.
CONUS, Adrien (VOLUME)
Member of Eucalyptus Mission. Sent by Huet to get help from Bauges Maquis on 21 July.
COSTA DE BEAUREGARD, Roland (DURIEU)
Responsible for the northern sector of the Vercors.
COULANDON, Émile (GASPARD)
Resistance leader on the Mont Mouchet.
CROIX, Yves (PINGOUIN)
Eucalyptus Mission radio operator.
CROUAU, Fernand (ABEL)
Commander of Compagnie Abel.
DAGOSTINI, Raoul
Milice Chief.
DALLOZ, Pierre (SENLIS)
Conceived Plan Montagnards in 1942.
D’ANGLEJAN (ARNOLLE)
One of Huet’s staff officers. He organized the counter-attacks in Vassieux.
D’ASTIER DE LA VIGÉRIE, Emmanuel (BERNARD)
Senior French Resistance official in London and Algiers.
DARIER, Albert (FÉLIX)
Member of the Mens section of the Compagnie de Trièves.
DELESTRAINT, Charles (VIDAL)
General. Head of the Secret Army in southern France. Captured and died in Dachau.
DESCOUR, Jacques (LA FLÈCHE)
Marcel Descour’s son. Killed at Vassieux, 21 July 1944.
DESCOUR, Marcel (BAYARD and PÉRIMÈTRE)
Chief of Staff of the Secret Army in R1 and FFI Commander of Region 1.
DESMAZES, Marie Alphonse Théodore René Adrien (RICHARD)
Secret Army conspirator with Delestraint in Bourg-en-Bresse.
DROUOT,
