French Literature: Biographies

The Oxford Companion to World War II The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Further reading

Vercors

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | | Copyright

Vercors. This 900 m. (3,000 ft.) plateau, 48 km. (30 mi.) long by 19 km. (12 mi.) wide, is situated south-west of Grenoble in France. It is screened by a formidable rock barrier and the Free French wanted to make it a National Redoubt, an impenetrable fortress for the maquis gathering there, to give them a safe base from which to harass German supply routes after the French Riviera landings of August 1944. The local maquis leaders, expecting a plan of flying in reinforcements and heavy weapons to be implemented immediately after the Normandy landings (see OVERLORD), closed the passes into the Vercors on 10 June 1944, flew a tricolour from the heights in full view of the Germans at Grenoble, and created a Free Republic of the Vercors. But large-scale reinforcements for the 3,500 lightly-armed maquis never arrived, though supplies were dropped and both SOE and the Office of Strategic Services sent missions. Fighting escalated with German patrols and the local Milice until, on 19 July, the Germans launched a full-scale attack on the plateau with 10,000 men. Three days later 200 SS troops landed there in gliders, forcing the surviving maquis to disperse and hide. In overrunning the area the Germans committed many atrocities.

Bibliography

Pearson, M. , Tears of Glory (London, 1978).

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Vercors." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Vercors." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Vercors.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Vercors." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Vercors.html

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Vercors

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

Vercors , 1902-91, French writer and illustrator, whose original name was Jean Bruller. Vercors served in the French resistance movement and helped to found Les Éditions de Minuit, which began as an underground publishing firm. For them he wrote Le Silence de la mer (1942, tr. The Silence of the Sea, 1944). This story and the later La marche à l'étoile (1943) deal with the moral impossibility of collaboration with the Germans. Among his many later works are Les Yeux et la lumière (1948), Sylva (1961, tr. 1962), Quota (1966, tr. 1966), and Sillages (1972).

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"Vercors." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Vercors." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Vercors.html

"Vercors." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Vercors.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Vercors: this outlying ripple of the Alps is ideally suited to anyone looking... Magazine article from: Geographical; 6/1/2003
	Mountains are the tops; RIN SIMPSON discovers there's more to the Alps than... Newspaper article from: Wales On Sunday (Cardiff, Wales); 9/14/2008
	Etudes de Minuit, 1942-1955: le devoir d'insoumission. Magazine article from: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada; 9/22/1996