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{{Expand French|topic=mil|Maquis des Glières|date=June 2017}}
{{refimprove|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Battle of Glières
|partof= [[Second World War]]
|image=Régions résistance.jpg
|image_size=300px
|caption=Geographic organization of the [[French Resistance]] showing the [[Haute-Savoie]] and [[Rhône-Alpes]] region in R1
|date=31 January 1944 – 26 March 1944<br>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days |month1=01 |day1=31 |year1=1944 |month2=03 |day2=26 |year2=1944}})
|place=[[Glières Plateau]], [[Bornes Massif]], [[Haute-Savoie]], [[France]]
|result= German and Vichy French victory
* Propaganda boost for French Resistance
|combatant1= {{flagicon|Free French}} [[French Resistance]]
|combatant2={{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}<br>{{flag|Vichy France}}
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the collaborationist French Militia.svg}} [[Milice]]
*[[Groupe mobile de réserve]]
* [[Garde Mobile]]
|commander1= {{flagicon|Free French}} Tom Morel{{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon|Free French}} Maurice Anjot{{KIA}}
|commander2= {{flagicon|Nazi Germany}} Karl Pflaum<br>{{flagicon|Vichy France}} Georges Lelong<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the collaborationist French Militia.svg}} Jean de Vaugelas<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the collaborationist French Militia.svg}} [[Jacques de Bernonville]]
|strength1= {{circa}} 450 [[Maquis (World War II)|maquisards]] <small>(including 56 Spanish fighters and 80 [[Francs-tireurs]])</small>
|strength2=Over 1,400 Vichy policemen<br> 700 militia <small>(of the [[Franc-Garde]]s)</small><br>3,000 German soldiers
|casualties1= 140 killed or deported
|casualties2= 21 killed
|campaignbox={{Campaignbox Free French}}
|}}

The '''Maquis des Glières''' was a [[Maquis (World War II)|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 [[Nazi Germany|German]], [[Vichy France|Vichy]] and [[Milice]] forces.<ref>[http://alain.cerri.free.fr/index20.html The Battle of Glières]</ref><ref>[http://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/offre/fiche/national-cemetary-of-the-glieres/111727 National cemetery of the Glieres]</ref>

==Resistance==
{{Citations needed section|date=October 2022}}
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 Henry Heslop]] from the [[Special Operations Executive]] and [[Captain (land and air)|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.

On 31 January 1944, Lieutenant [[Tom Morel]], a [[Chasseurs alpins|Chasseur alpin]] from the [[27th Mountain Infantry Brigade (France)|27th chasseurs alpins battalion]] (mountain light infantry) in [[Annecy]], was commissioned to collect parachute drops from the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) with 100 men. Captain Rosenthal, the Free French representative, persuaded the other staff members to regroup the majority of [[Maquis (World War II)|maquisards]] on the Glières Plateau, to establish a base to attack the Germans and carry out sabotage. Because the Allies doubted the value of the French Resistance, the French considered it a political necessity to show they were capable of undermining German military power in France.

==Repression==
{{Citations needed section|date=October 2022}}
In January 1944 a state of siege was declared in Haute-Savoie. Anyone found carrying arms or assisting the [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]] was subject to immediate court martial and execution. Hunted by the [[Vichy France|Vichy]] police and badly supplied, most of the maquisards gathered on the Glières Plateau to set up their base of operations. Soon after, 100 French communist resistants and about 50 Spanish lumberjacks joined forces with them in taking refuge and obtaining weapons. From 13 February the 450 maquisards, under the command of officers from the [[27e bataillon de chasseurs alpins]], were besieged by 2,000 French militia and police. Although they suffered from starvation and freezing conditions, they collected three parachute drops consisting of about 300 containers packed with explosives and small arms, including [[Sten]] sub-machine guns, [[Lee–Enfield]] rifles, [[Bren]] light machine guns and [[Mills bomb]]s (hand grenades).

On the night of 9/10 March the commander-in-chief, Lt Tom Morel, was killed in a skirmish with the Vichy forces. On 12 March, after the largest Allied parachute drop, the [[Germans]] started to bomb the area with ground-attack aircraft. The [[Milice]] (French paramilitary police) staged several attacks, which failed. On 23 March three battalions from the German 157th Reserve Division and two [[Order Police battalions]], composed of more than 4,000 men, with heavy machine guns, 80&nbsp;mm mortars, 75&nbsp;mm mountain guns, 150&nbsp;mm howitzers and armoured cars, concentrated in Haute-Savoie.

==Retreat==
[[File:Monument des Glières2.jpg|thumb|Present day image of the Monument des Glières]]{{Citations needed section|date=October 2022}}
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, from a ''[[Gebirgsjäger]]'' (mountain troops) platoon, made an attack on the main exit from the plateau and captured an advance 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. Captain Anjot 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.

The region of Savoie had suffered badly, but the defeat was turned into a propaganda victory and gave a boost to the French Resistance in the spring of 1944.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://alain.cerri.free.fr/index20.html The Battle of Glières]
* [http://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/offre/fiche/national-cemetary-of-the-glieres/111727 National cemetery of the Glieres]
* [https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/29415/Resistance-Museum-of-Morette-La-Balme-de-Thuy.htm Resistance Museum of Morette La Balme-de-Thuy]

==See also==
* [[Maquis du Vercors]]
* [[Maquis du Mont Mouchet]]
* [[French Resistance]]
* [[Free French Forces]]
* [[French Forces of the Interior]]
* [[Liberation of Paris]]
* [[Maquis de l'Oisans]]

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{{French Resistance}}
{{Liberation of France}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glieres, Maquis des}}
[[Category:French Maquis]]
[[Category:Battles of World War II involving France]]
[[Category:Battles of World War II involving Germany]]
[[Category:Military battles of Vichy France]]
[[Category:Uprisings during World War II]]
[[Category:Guerrilla warfare]]
[[Category:Military history of France during World War II]]