5:34 "Ici commence le pays de la liberté" - Here begins the land of liberty, that sign made me tear up a little. These people did not hold back on their convictions even in the face of such adversity and uncertainty.
The small difference here is that USSR and Poland were formally at war and Polish resistance had order to resist the RKKA , here it is more of lets sacrefice these guys.
The French-German TV channel arte has a series where they dig up old footage from the archives and explain the background to the viewer, they also have an episode on the Vercors - not in English though and the deeper background with the promised but never delivered supply is strangely missing... the filming was apparently done when they got what little they got. The Episode is on CZcams, search for "Mystères D'Archives 1944 Dans Le Maquis Du Vercors" (French narration) or "Verschollene Filmschätze 1944 Die Schlacht um den Vercors" (German narration). If you understand neither, you could try the machine-generated and -translated subtitles to get an idea.
If that Berthier could speak... I'd imagine it to be an awfully emotional moment for itself and for those willing to hear its story. Remembering the person who carried it into battle against the Germans, filled with determination and sheer willpower, whether said person survived or otherwise... Vive la Resistance!
Or maybe it would tell us, that after having officially been stolen from the french army in 1940, it stayed in the custody of some resistance dude who never got to use it eventually, because in such an asymetrical war, most of what one does, is waiting and hiding, and often one doesn't even get the chance to fire a single shot before the battle is over with one outcome or the other. This is all a wild guess of mines, but I think it isn't much less plausible...
I do apologise for my naïvety in assuming that the Berthier was not involved in the fight against the Germans in 1940, let alone if it actually saw combat... I'm not that well-versed in World War II, aside from the general history of it.
I used to make French surrender jokes, being more of an Anglophile. Then I started paying more attention to history through the late 18th and 19th centuries, The Great War and stories like this, which is basically a French Masada-Lite. Now I don't make jokes. On ne passe pas! Vive la France! I still hold their navy in contempt through the Napoleonic Wars, though I feel a little embarrassed for them.
While the French have a proud military, they can be overly/unrealistically proud of it, so deflating their national ego with the occasional surrender monkey jabs seems OK to me. I think the difference is making the japes while not fully buying in to the stereotype, as that would be simply ignorant of historical facts. I mean it's not like the French are not ready and willing to make 'jokes' about the U.S. military being undisciplined blunt instruments.
Unfortunately, even though the Prague uprising itself was more or less successful, the Allies still managed to screw the Czechs over nonetheless by not adhering to (or enforcing) the Yalta agreement, with the USSR turning Czeckoslovakia into a puppet state and the other Allies doing nothing to stop them.
I took the OP's comment to refer to the habit that the Allies had for screwing over resistance groups for a perceived strategic advantage. It's like the people at SHAEF (the Allied high command) never thought about the fact that resistance fighters can't surrender like ordinary troops can if the fight turns hopeless.....
Many collectors and enthusiasts are as interested in the human history as well as the mechanical history of these artifacts. Keep these types of videos coming.
THANK YOU!! I read that book in 1979, I can't remember how or why I ordered it. Never heard of The Vercours or this story before I read it. Personally, I do not understand why there is not a movie about it!! 2007, I'm on a 2 week trip w/ the NY Museum of Natural History, Ian Tattersall & his wife Jeane (both work there,) Ian being the head of The Anthropology/Human Origins Dept. @ that time. We had our guide - Annie - who was an encyclopedia of French historical stuff. Our trip went from Paris all the way down to the edge of the Pyrenees. While on the bus ride between the caves, I asked Ian about The Vercours & the "French Resistance's 'Alamo'," after the D-Day landings. He had no clue,..imagine my shock when Annie was just as blank! No one on the bus of appx 25 people had ever heard of it! The next year, my gal & I drove up the cool roads onto the plateau & visited several of the sites & both museums, & stayed a few nights. In 2013, I took my best friend there & visited the cemetery @ The Three Sisters. He read the book on our way over. Again "Thank You!' for covering this. The story of "Christine Granville" in an episode of "The Secrets of WW2 - DESTINATION DANGER" connected her to the battle, as she was hiking out of the plateau when the raid happened, & looked helplessly on as the battle began. Another super woman whose life story should be a movie. Many Thanks for your shows! TEXAS DAVE.
That book is already well over $100 dollars at it's cheapest and the price rises quickly and steeply. Also Ian thank you so much for your recommending of the Wipers Times last week, I really enjoyed watching the BBC special on youtube and also bought a copy of the version you suggested shortly after watching the special. The books looks really cool and is very fun to read so far. Thank you, I love learning about these kinds of things. You may really like "Up Front" by Bill Mauldin, his 1945 WWII memoir of what he learned, saw, and drew as cartoons during his time in the war. A must read, seriously just google it, it has almost nothing but amazing reviews.
Is there an ebook? That should do if you're interested in reading it, but maybe not if you just want something to put on your shelf. We need a ebook reader that feels like a book.
That's too bad I'd like to read it, and don't want history to be forgotten, and inaccessible to the masses. Publisher went out of business, but copyright hasn't expired kinda thing? Or they don't bother to republish old books as ebooks? Or they are trying to inflate the price of the book?
This plan, Liberator pistol drops... Makes one wonder of "what could have been". And a whole _week_ just to give CZcams time to not freak out at the video? Wow.
H3x4r35 Liberator pistols were just pistols. Cheap, unreliable, but already produced and ready to be sent out. It's another question whom you'll send them and how they'd be used. There were other places that might have needed them. You're making good points though. With respect, grandson of teenage belarussian partisan;)
H3, sadly you miss the point. war is hell. to not resist would not mean that those 10,20,or 30 Frenchmen from town would not be killed by their enemy for any other reason. don't give up liberty for (said) security.
Although very logical explanation. The Germans really did not care who they blamed. They killed numerous civilians anyway. Basically danged if you danged if you dont.
Trying to time actions in war time is always very suspect when it comes to planning operations, unless you have a VERY good estimation of the enemy's morale levels, it's very difficult to conduct operations based on "we will be to this objective by D + 2 weeks." The Germans, despite the state of their military situation, certainly put up much more significant resistance than the Allies expected, particularly in Normandy. Very few Allied forces were able to accomplish their D-Day objectives, to say nothing of their failure to make a swift advance through the hedgerows (if indeed they could have at all moved swiftly through the hedgerow country).
If anyone is interested in this particularly tragic episode of WW2 then I recommend an obscure British drama series from the late 1980's/early 1990's called 'Wish Me Luck', the third series of which provides a highly fictionalised yet compelling account of the Vercors uprising (the series renames the region as 'Le Crest'). 'Wish Me Luck' ran for three series and centres on the experiences and exploits of numerous female SOE agents parachuted into occupied France during WW2. The show is generally very good and surprisingly dark at times (relatively speaking) though it does inevitably betray a very modest budget! Regardless, well worth tracking down imo.
Another book which also has a large amount on the Vercors Resistance from both the French and German point of view is Das Reich: The March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944 by Max Hastings. A very interesting and well written book showing both perspectives. It is well worth a read if you are interested in this topic.
There is hundreds of stories like those everywhere in France, everyone have one or two stories that nobody ever heard. I live in a region of France where the resistance was really fierce, it was a place where the demarcation line basicaly cut the place in two... So when the germans invaded the south, at least 5 maquis formed in a area of less than 50km. In 1944, when the german knew that the allied troops that landed in the South of France were coming, they basicaly packed their stuff in an armored train, and set of for going further north... Well the Resistance was having none of that: the german train departed from my hometown in the morning, but only a few kilometer away from where I live, there is a bridge, named "Galuzot's bridge", the Resistance managed to block the train on that bridge, and kept it under a hail of machine gun fire, the germans retaliated with what they had, as well as the 20mm flak gun on board. At the end of the day, the FFI had 2 dead, the germans had 14 dead, 30 wounded. That day, the Resistance made 500 prisonners, as well as 2 tanks captured (Renault FT with czech turret), and Montceau les Mines became one of the 18 french city to won the Medaille of the Resistance, for liberating by itself.
small edit: the battle in fact occured at night, during the night of the 5th to the 6th of Spetember 1944 to be exact. And yes, you will struggle to find any infos of this battle... it's one of those unsung moments of ww2...
They were not the only ones let down by the Allies. Spanish republicans who had been colaborating with the french resistance organised an invasion of a valley in the east spanish Pyrenees in october 1944, expecting that after France, Spain would be liberated next. They proclaimed a provisional government there, but they were quickly repelled.
With Franco being "neutral" the Allies likely didn't want to open up a front to their South. Promises had been made by the Allies earlier that Spain wouldn't be punished for its Axis ties (presumably mostly to keep them out of the war) - though in reality they weren't kept by future leaders, but only to the extent that they were internationally shunned. Post-War I'd guess that the "fight" was out of the Allies, and they weren't in the mood to be going off launching some crusade against a nominal ally when the Soviets were their next problem.
If someday, you end up visiting France, I have a house up there, hit me up if you wanna visit the place ! A lot of Resistance stuff to see and sightseeing is really worth the trip. Martin
The first piece of Metropolitan France. The first part of the French territory to come back under the rightful rule of the General's government was St.Pierre et Miquelon (liberated by French Marines aboard French ships, against the will of the UK and US).
Corsica was liberated by the corsicans, but also Free French, and at the end, even the italian troops helped to kick out the germans. The real DIY liberation is Haute Savoie. There, it's truly the resistants who liberated the place and received the surrender of the german troops
That book is now selling for hundreds of dollars after this video being up for one day lol. I’d get a copy for the few bucks you said it’d be. But a book with that many mistakes about firearms would drive me crazy so I can’t see spending more than $20 on it. Lowest price from your link is over $140!
I think it was the second series of the British TV drama "Wish Me Luck" that was set against the events at Vercour. Screened in 1988-1989 I think. It was fictionalised and seen mostly from the point of view of British SOE agents. The writers were inclined to think that De Gaulle wanted the Vercour Resistance to rise up against the Germans and be wiped out, rather than rise up against him. There may have been an element of truth in this. The Vercour resistance were socialists, not Gaullists! Part of the delay in the invasion in the South of France was because there was a point of view that further landings in Italy (this time in the North) might let allied tanks onto the Hungarian Plain, which would have ended the war pretty rapidly. De Gaulle certainly wasn't buying this one, but fighting out of France and into Belgium, Holland and Germany proved really difficult and you can see why alternative plans were considered. De Gaulle didn't actually care how hard it was into Germany for American and British troops, as long as he was seen to have liberated Paris, apparently in person without allied help.
It's entirely possible that De Gaulle wanted those resistance groups that didn't support him to be severely weakened by the Germans. It would be completely in character for him from everything I've read. The primary delay in launching Operation Dragoon (the invasion of the South of France) from all I've read about it was the shortage of landing craft. Many of the transports and landing craft used in Dragoon had also been used in Overlord and it took time to repair, reorganize, and transfer them to the Mediterranean Theater.
Bregil: As well as using the same landing craft in Burma (delay there was mainly in ferrying them that far at landing craft speeds!) the plan was to then use them, together with survivors of the ones being used repeatedly in the Pacific, in any invasion of Japan, if that couldn't be avoided. At least the smaller of the two types of landing craft carried by HMS Intrepid and HMS Fearless in the Falklands War, were WW2 production too. The bigger landing craft used in the Falklands were pretty old as well, but may not have actually been WW2 production? Somewhere around 2008, NEW LCTs were finally built, on the Clyde, but not in very great numbers! The new ones have a ramp at each end and steering position on one side so they can return to the mother ship and reload without having to be turned around and backed into the floodable dock. Greece, meanwhile, was mainly liberated by British SBS troops in wooden fishing boats or "Caiques." German resistance was at first brutal and effective, then they decided they didn't want to be trapped in Greece and the challenge, then, was to advance fast enough to keep up with their withdrawal. At no point did the Germans in Greece face British forces remotely capable of driving them out, they just believed they did. (Edited because I had LST instead of LCT.)
Bregil: To find out about the liberation of Greece, you have to read books about the SBS, because almost no-one else was there, really, save for the Greek "Sacred Squadron" and countless very brave Greek citizens. There aren't very many of these, because the SBS lacks the PR machine of the "secretive" SAS. I have read two that are available on Amazon as kindle books (price won't change if anybody buys them). "The SBS in World War II" by Gavin Mortimer. The more accurate and less personality driven of the two. www.amazon.co.uk/SBS-World-War-II-ebook/dp/B01BY3020Y/ (I've tried to shorten the link: Amazon leaves all the search info in and makes the links ridiculously long.) Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis. This is a little more jazzed up, but does contain information as well as hype. www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Secret-Warriors-Explosive-Desperadoes-ebook/dp/B00L7SLSNC/ There is a third, same title as the first, different author. That's about it. Again, I've tried to shorten the page-long Amazon link (they both still work though!) Greece figures fairly large in the middle of both books. They have space on my Kindle in between numerous works by Rebecca Tope about people being murdered in scenic locations: the "Genocide in the Cotswolds" series I think it's called, or should be.
They were communists, not socialists. The deifference is really important in France. Especially at the time, since the socialists were all in the Vichy government. The were collaborating for the sake of "building a unified Europe".
Recently learned the the Free French actually had an air force. Was looking up some information on the P-38 Lightning and saw a list of countries who used it and saw the Free French Air Force listed. Had to do a double take.
The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of the Little Prince) flew a P-38 for a reconnaissance mission in the South of France prior to the naval invasion when he disappeared. Free French pilots mostly flew within the RAF at first (look up for the French ace Pierre Clostermann) and then with the Russian Air Force (Normandie-Niemen squadron) until they could fly again under French colors after 1943. At this point they used a lot of US planes.
Funny gun fact about Vercors resistance: among all the weapons parachuted, they received a lot of United Defense-m42 SMG (recently reviewed on the channel). You see it here in archives videos here: czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm12s here also here czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm19s and there czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm17s
Hi Ian, apart from the brass insignia, how does one go about establishing the provenance of the rifle? It seems like something that could dramatically increase the value of a rifle, giving a major incentive to forgers.
The battle of Camaron in 1863 is actually the French version of Alamo, literrally. 63 Legionnaires holding a house in Mexico to the death against between 2000 and 3000 Mexicans soldiers for several hours. At the end of the day, only 3 French soldiers were left standing ; 43 of them were killed and the others wounded and unable to fight anymore but they killed 190 Mexicans and wounded over 300 more. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camar%C3%B3n
Is "Tears of glory: The heroes of Vercors, 1944" the same book as "Tears of Glory: The Betrayal of Vercors, 1944"? They're by the same author, but one of them is going for ~$150 and the other for ~$20.
Hello Ian, Something to add. The french resistance was full of communists.The allies never wanted a strong resistance to come out of the "liberation" In order to achieve this they always sent light weapons such as Sten guns which would not have allowed a sustained war.Some of these guys fought with nothing.
Where is the white flag now? What Ian doesn’t say, is the the fighters in the Vercors quickly realised no one was comming to help. Still they kept the defense going, knowing they were doomed. And today there is still (a few) people that can account for that as they lived it.
i would also like to recommend the following french book (title translates to : Truths about the Vercors tragedy) www.amazon.fr/V%C3%A9rit%C3%A9s-Sur-Drame-du-Vercors/dp/2953960252 This book explores the decisionmaking behind the whole affair, and also pinpoints several mistakes made by De Gaulle's government in Algiers, particularly in regard to french Communists. It's too complicated to be explained here, but it offers additional details on the battle, from somebody who played an integral part in its planning.
Do you know anything why they put that brass mark on it? Was it just for coolness factor? It seems like it would make it just easier to identify as a resistance gun, if a german found it stashed in the woods or something.
I don't understand these resistance fighters, freed from a system that would be their downfall, only to desperately struggle to replace said system where it had been. Strange, tres strange.
great video as always. & im betting you've probably read it already, but check out ''Inside the Third Reich'' by Albert Speer. Nazi, yes, but also an incredibly intelligent man, who had 20 years in the Hague to write the book. he goes into extreme detail of production numbers & manufacturing hurdles of every sort of German produced weapon during his time as Minister of Armaments. & also the frivolous bickering of a dictatorial government.. great read though!
This video at Lindybeige ( czcams.com/video/YO-Ocueehfc/video.html ) talks about the Resistance as a whole and he posits the idea that the resistance were importance on and arounf D-Day rather than being thoroughly useful .
Hey Ian, why didn’t the French in ww1 simply dumb all efforts towards 5 shot berthier short rifles? instead we have lebels, 3 shot berthiers, and a seemingly limitless different models of carbines and rifles.
my problem is if the author couldn't bother to edit basic mistakes about technical details, how can he be trusted to accurately describe history? for example, instead of writing "belts of ammunition for his Thompson", the author could have just written "ammunition for his weapon". I'd have less information but it wouldn't be erroneous.
Great video as always, Ian! I wanted to recommend an interesting book about the French Resistance. I found it in dad's library years ago and read it. Its called "Resistance: France 1940-1945" by Blake Ehrlich. a.co/f3xhyv6
You just jinxed it by saying it’s a “cheap book”, like you did with “proud promise”, the book on French semi-auto rifle development, which was $40-90 before you mentioned it and now all copies are $500-2000...😡
Ian, its like you're slightly healing the damage done by the author's poor hardware knowledge, may it salve his wounds (or make them sting thrice over)
5:34 "Ici commence le pays de la liberté" - Here begins the land of liberty, that sign made me tear up a little. These people did not hold back on their convictions even in the face of such adversity and uncertainty.
true grit & a belt- fed thompson
Now I can't wait for the episode where Ian find a prototype belt-fed Thompson.
You mean the persuader?
They did exist, 1918-1922ish, which may be why the author makes this mistake?
Give us time. :)
I think this will be the episode where the hero of the story slams another clip into his revolver.
@@jimmelnyk7506 I hate when people say clip in to a revolver, when you know they mean magazine.
It is remarkable how similar Vercor story is to Warsaw uprising in 1944.
The small difference here is that USSR and Poland were formally at war and Polish resistance had order to resist the RKKA , here it is more of lets sacrefice these guys.
Thanks for this tribute to our Vercors heroes Ian. They deserve it.
Thank you for sharing that bit of history. What a heroic stand and a seldom-told story.
I just checked Amazon, the cheapest copy is now 40.00.
That went up FAST.
Currently sitting at about $60...
Now at 140$
Now at 1500$
Hah! Just bought a copy on eBay for $25.
5 between $140 and $502 here. Ouch.
The French-German TV channel arte has a series where they dig up old footage from the archives and explain the background to the viewer, they also have an episode on the Vercors - not in English though and the deeper background with the promised but never delivered supply is strangely missing... the filming was apparently done when they got what little they got.
The Episode is on CZcams, search for "Mystères D'Archives 1944 Dans Le Maquis Du Vercors" (French narration) or "Verschollene Filmschätze 1944 Die Schlacht um den Vercors" (German narration). If you understand neither, you could try the machine-generated and -translated subtitles to get an idea.
British TV made a drama series about the SOE and the last 3 or 4 episodes were set in Vercor. It was called 'wish me luck' worth a look.
If that Berthier could speak... I'd imagine it to be an awfully emotional moment for itself and for those willing to hear its story. Remembering the person who carried it into battle against the Germans, filled with determination and sheer willpower, whether said person survived or otherwise...
Vive la Resistance!
Or maybe it would tell us, that after having officially been stolen from the french army in 1940, it stayed in the custody of some resistance dude who never got to use it eventually, because in such an asymetrical war, most of what one does, is waiting and hiding, and often one doesn't even get the chance to fire a single shot before the battle is over with one outcome or the other. This is all a wild guess of mines, but I think it isn't much less plausible...
It's safe to say you aren't describing it's use during the 1940 invasion.
I do apologise for my naïvety in assuming that the Berthier was not involved in the fight against the Germans in 1940, let alone if it actually saw combat... I'm not that well-versed in World War II, aside from the general history of it.
True enough, William Sager :)
I have 4 sale french rifle from the time of World War 2 hardly used, never shoot, once thrown on the ground :)
That Berthier has always been one of my favorite guns in your collection, possibly the favorite
The burnt arisaka is a great rifle to
Glad to see this book getting some recognition :) Thanks Ian
I used to make French surrender jokes, being more of an Anglophile. Then I started paying more attention to history through the late 18th and 19th centuries, The Great War and stories like this, which is basically a French Masada-Lite.
Now I don't make jokes.
On ne passe pas! Vive la France!
I still hold their navy in contempt through the Napoleonic Wars, though I feel a little embarrassed for them.
We should have found a way to assassinate that fraggin' Nelson when he was on land.
While the French have a proud military, they can be overly/unrealistically proud of it, so deflating their national ego with the occasional surrender monkey jabs seems OK to me. I think the difference is making the japes while not fully buying in to the stereotype, as that would be simply ignorant of historical facts.
I mean it's not like the French are not ready and willing to make 'jokes' about the U.S. military being undisciplined blunt instruments.
I'm very sorry Ian but now you have to do weekly history episodes . :/
If you just hadn't made such a great pilot episode...
Warsaw, Greece, Vercor... The Allies really don't have a great record with the resistance :/
I'm glad the Prague uprising ended well, although that was more thanks to the Vlasov army than the allies.
Unfortunately, even though the Prague uprising itself was more or less successful, the Allies still managed to screw the Czechs over nonetheless by not adhering to (or enforcing) the Yalta agreement, with the USSR turning Czeckoslovakia into a puppet state and the other Allies doing nothing to stop them.
So... The resistance was futile? LoL sorry, I'm leaving now
I took the OP's comment to refer to the habit that the Allies had for screwing over resistance groups for a perceived strategic advantage. It's like the people at SHAEF (the Allied high command) never thought about the fact that resistance fighters can't surrender like ordinary troops can if the fight turns hopeless.....
It's almost like England and France didnt like the idea of locals standing up to an occupying power...
Many collectors and enthusiasts are as interested in the human history as well as the mechanical history of these artifacts. Keep these types of videos coming.
Fascinating story, and one that I wasn’t aware of. Very cool rifle too!
A TV drama series about the SOE covered this. 'Wish me luck' made in the 90s. Worth a look.
Burt Gummer removes sunglasses "Total geographic isolation."
THANK YOU!! I read that book in 1979, I can't remember how or why I ordered it. Never heard of The Vercours or this story before I read it. Personally, I do not understand why there is not a movie about it!! 2007, I'm on a 2 week trip w/ the NY Museum of Natural History, Ian Tattersall & his wife Jeane (both work there,) Ian being the head of The Anthropology/Human Origins Dept. @ that time. We had our guide - Annie - who was an encyclopedia of French historical stuff. Our trip went from Paris all the way down to the edge of the Pyrenees. While on the bus ride between the caves, I asked Ian about The Vercours & the "French Resistance's 'Alamo'," after the D-Day landings. He had no clue,..imagine my shock when Annie was just as blank! No one on the bus of appx 25 people had ever heard of it! The next year, my gal & I drove up the cool roads onto the plateau & visited several of the sites & both museums, & stayed a few nights. In 2013, I took my best friend there & visited the cemetery @ The Three Sisters. He read the book on our way over. Again "Thank You!' for covering this. The story of "Christine Granville" in an episode of "The Secrets of WW2 - DESTINATION DANGER" connected her to the battle, as she was hiking out of the plateau when the raid happened, & looked helplessly on as the battle began. Another super woman whose life story should be a movie. Many Thanks for your shows! TEXAS DAVE.
A story that would make a good film, but of course the film makers would mess it up.
That book is already well over $100 dollars at it's cheapest and the price rises quickly and steeply.
Also Ian thank you so much for your recommending of the Wipers Times last week, I really enjoyed watching the BBC special on youtube and also bought a copy of the version you suggested shortly after watching the special. The books looks really cool and is very fun to read so far. Thank you, I love learning about these kinds of things.
You may really like "Up Front" by Bill Mauldin, his 1945 WWII memoir of what he learned, saw, and drew as cartoons during his time in the war. A must read, seriously just google it, it has almost nothing but amazing reviews.
$218 CAD right now ....wow
didn't take long.
Is there an ebook? That should do if you're interested in reading it, but maybe not if you just want something to put on your shelf.
We need a ebook reader that feels like a book.
That's too bad I'd like to read it, and don't want history to be forgotten, and inaccessible to the masses.
Publisher went out of business, but copyright hasn't expired kinda thing? Or they don't bother to republish old books as ebooks? Or they are trying to inflate the price of the book?
I live really close to the Vercors massif :)
Keep up the awesome book review man!
There is a British TV drama series that covers the SOE and the Vercor resistance. I think it's called 'wish me luck', well worth a look.
This plan, Liberator pistol drops... Makes one wonder of "what could have been".
And a whole _week_ just to give CZcams time to not freak out at the video? Wow.
H3x4r35
Liberator pistols were just pistols. Cheap, unreliable, but already produced and ready to be sent out. It's another question whom you'll send them and how they'd be used. There were other places that might have needed them.
You're making good points though.
With respect, grandson of teenage belarussian partisan;)
H3, sadly you miss the point. war is hell. to not resist would not mean that those 10,20,or 30 Frenchmen from town would not be killed by their enemy for any other reason. don't give up liberty for (said) security.
Although very logical explanation. The Germans really did not care who they blamed. They killed numerous civilians anyway.
Basically danged if you danged if you dont.
Trying to time actions in war time is always very suspect when it comes to planning operations, unless you have a VERY good estimation of the enemy's morale levels, it's very difficult to conduct operations based on "we will be to this objective by D + 2 weeks." The Germans, despite the state of their military situation, certainly put up much more significant resistance than the Allies expected, particularly in Normandy. Very few Allied forces were able to accomplish their D-Day objectives, to say nothing of their failure to make a swift advance through the hedgerows (if indeed they could have at all moved swiftly through the hedgerow country).
Thanks. I never knew about this
If anyone is interested in this particularly tragic episode of WW2 then I recommend an obscure British drama series from the late 1980's/early 1990's called 'Wish Me Luck', the third series of which provides a highly fictionalised yet compelling account of the Vercors uprising (the series renames the region as 'Le Crest').
'Wish Me Luck' ran for three series and centres on the experiences and exploits of numerous female SOE agents parachuted into occupied France during WW2. The show is generally very good and surprisingly dark at times (relatively speaking) though it does inevitably betray a very modest budget! Regardless, well worth tracking down imo.
Another book which also has a large amount on the Vercors Resistance from both the French and German point of view is Das Reich: The March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944 by Max Hastings. A very interesting and well written book showing both perspectives. It is well worth a read if you are interested in this topic.
It's confirmed guys , Ian is actually a librarian disguising himself as a Gun Jésus.
Afinoxis of Anatolia I could only imagine what his personal Library looks like🙀😻
There is hundreds of stories like those everywhere in France, everyone have one or two stories that nobody ever heard. I live in a region of France where the resistance was really fierce, it was a place where the demarcation line basicaly cut the place in two... So when the germans invaded the south, at least 5 maquis formed in a area of less than 50km. In 1944, when the german knew that the allied troops that landed in the South of France were coming, they basicaly packed their stuff in an armored train, and set of for going further north... Well the Resistance was having none of that: the german train departed from my hometown in the morning, but only a few kilometer away from where I live, there is a bridge, named "Galuzot's bridge", the Resistance managed to block the train on that bridge, and kept it under a hail of machine gun fire, the germans retaliated with what they had, as well as the 20mm flak gun on board. At the end of the day, the FFI had 2 dead, the germans had 14 dead, 30 wounded. That day, the Resistance made 500 prisonners, as well as 2 tanks captured (Renault FT with czech turret), and Montceau les Mines became one of the 18 french city to won the Medaille of the Resistance, for liberating by itself.
small edit: the battle in fact occured at night, during the night of the 5th to the 6th of Spetember 1944 to be exact. And yes, you will struggle to find any infos of this battle... it's one of those unsung moments of ww2...
They were not the only ones let down by the Allies. Spanish republicans who had been colaborating with the french resistance organised an invasion of a valley in the east spanish Pyrenees in october 1944, expecting that after France, Spain would be liberated next. They proclaimed a provisional government there, but they were quickly repelled.
With Franco being "neutral" the Allies likely didn't want to open up a front to their South. Promises had been made by the Allies earlier that Spain wouldn't be punished for its Axis ties (presumably mostly to keep them out of the war) - though in reality they weren't kept by future leaders, but only to the extent that they were internationally shunned. Post-War I'd guess that the "fight" was out of the Allies, and they weren't in the mood to be going off launching some crusade against a nominal ally when the Soviets were their next problem.
There were no good guys in this war, least of all us.
You mean spanish commies.
That carabine is awesome! I couldn't put a price to it.
If someday, you end up visiting France, I have a house up there, hit me up if you wanna visit the place ! A lot of Resistance stuff to see and sightseeing is really worth the trip.
Martin
the first piece of liberated france was corsica.
corsicans make DIY release in 1943
Exact.
The first piece of Metropolitan France. The first part of the French territory to come back under the rightful rule of the General's government was St.Pierre et Miquelon (liberated by French Marines aboard French ships, against the will of the UK and US).
Corsica was liberated by the corsicans, but also Free French, and at the end, even the italian troops helped to kick out the germans.
The real DIY liberation is Haute Savoie. There, it's truly the resistants who liberated the place and received the surrender of the german troops
This was really interesting Ian great format eg gun with a story
Osprey pubs. has a book on this as part of their campaign series. The title is Vercors 1944. I thought it was good and its on Amazon for about $15.
Excellent book
That book is now selling for hundreds of dollars after this video being up for one day lol. I’d get a copy for the few bucks you said it’d be. But a book with that many mistakes about firearms would drive me crazy so I can’t see spending more than $20 on it. Lowest price from your link is over $140!
Look for other editions, or on eBay.
Thanks Ian. Good to know about Velcro’s.
For people interested by the story of the Vercors Maquis, you should probably be interested by the Glières Maquis.
thanx Ian, this is important history and it makes me sad that iv'e never even heard of the Vercors and i should have.
I want to see a book review where the book is genuinely crap
just so Ian can pick it apart.
I fell into this whilst reading of a soe agent krystna Starbeck alias Christine Granville ,thanks for your work
Well, you were RIGHT. The price of the book has really gone up!
Less than 10 minutes and a dislike? Heresy against Gun Jesus
Alex de Moya Gun Judas
voda training = gun judas
Alex de Moya let us all flame gun judas
I think it was the second series of the British TV drama "Wish Me Luck" that was set against the events at Vercour. Screened in 1988-1989 I think. It was fictionalised and seen mostly from the point of view of British SOE agents. The writers were inclined to think that De Gaulle wanted the Vercour Resistance to rise up against the Germans and be wiped out, rather than rise up against him. There may have been an element of truth in this. The Vercour resistance were socialists, not Gaullists!
Part of the delay in the invasion in the South of France was because there was a point of view that further landings in Italy (this time in the North) might let allied tanks onto the Hungarian Plain, which would have ended the war pretty rapidly. De Gaulle certainly wasn't buying this one, but fighting out of France and into Belgium, Holland and Germany proved really difficult and you can see why alternative plans were considered. De Gaulle didn't actually care how hard it was into Germany for American and British troops, as long as he was seen to have liberated Paris, apparently in person without allied help.
It's entirely possible that De Gaulle wanted those resistance groups that didn't support him to be severely weakened by the Germans. It would be completely in character for him from everything I've read.
The primary delay in launching Operation Dragoon (the invasion of the South of France) from all I've read about it was the shortage of landing craft. Many of the transports and landing craft used in Dragoon had also been used in Overlord and it took time to repair, reorganize, and transfer them to the Mediterranean Theater.
Bregil: As well as using the same landing craft in Burma (delay there was mainly in ferrying them that far at landing craft speeds!) the plan was to then use them, together with survivors of the ones being used repeatedly in the Pacific, in any invasion of Japan, if that couldn't be avoided. At least the smaller of the two types of landing craft carried by HMS Intrepid and HMS Fearless in the Falklands War, were WW2 production too. The bigger landing craft used in the Falklands were pretty old as well, but may not have actually been WW2 production? Somewhere around 2008, NEW LCTs were finally built, on the Clyde, but not in very great numbers! The new ones have a ramp at each end and steering position on one side so they can return to the mother ship and reload without having to be turned around and backed into the floodable dock.
Greece, meanwhile, was mainly liberated by British SBS troops in wooden fishing boats or "Caiques." German resistance was at first brutal and effective, then they decided they didn't want to be trapped in Greece and the challenge, then, was to advance fast enough to keep up with their withdrawal. At no point did the Germans in Greece face British forces remotely capable of driving them out, they just believed they did. (Edited because I had LST instead of LCT.)
Thanks for the info, I'd never actually looked into the liberation of Greece before. I learned something new today. :)
Bregil: To find out about the liberation of Greece, you have to read books about the SBS, because almost no-one else was there, really, save for the Greek "Sacred Squadron" and countless very brave Greek citizens. There aren't very many of these, because the SBS lacks the PR machine of the "secretive" SAS.
I have read two that are available on Amazon as kindle books (price won't change if anybody buys them).
"The SBS in World War II" by Gavin Mortimer. The more accurate and less personality driven of the two.
www.amazon.co.uk/SBS-World-War-II-ebook/dp/B01BY3020Y/
(I've tried to shorten the link: Amazon leaves all the search info in and makes the links ridiculously long.)
Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis. This is a little more jazzed up, but does contain information as well as hype.
www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Secret-Warriors-Explosive-Desperadoes-ebook/dp/B00L7SLSNC/
There is a third, same title as the first, different author. That's about it.
Again, I've tried to shorten the page-long Amazon link (they both still work though!) Greece figures fairly large in the middle of both books. They have space on my Kindle in between numerous works by Rebecca Tope about people being murdered in scenic locations: the "Genocide in the Cotswolds" series I think it's called, or should be.
They were communists, not socialists. The deifference is really important in France. Especially at the time, since the socialists were all in the Vichy government. The were collaborating for the sake of "building a unified Europe".
I just checked and the cheapest is $140
Recently learned the the Free French actually had an air force. Was looking up some information on the P-38 Lightning and saw a list of countries who used it and saw the Free French Air Force listed. Had to do a double take.
The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of the Little Prince) flew a P-38 for a reconnaissance mission in the South of France prior to the naval invasion when he disappeared.
Free French pilots mostly flew within the RAF at first (look up for the French ace Pierre Clostermann) and then with the Russian Air Force (Normandie-Niemen squadron) until they could fly again under French colors after 1943. At this point they used a lot of US planes.
very nice i love your video !
from Grenoble ;)
Funny gun fact about Vercors resistance: among all the weapons parachuted, they received a lot of United Defense-m42 SMG (recently reviewed on the channel). You see it here in archives videos here: czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm12s
here also here czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm19s and there czcams.com/video/zoq7QREIgB8/video.htmlm17s
Idk maybe they meant drums? Some objects have strange translation when it goes from English to French back to English
Hi Ian, apart from the brass insignia, how does one go about establishing the provenance of the rifle? It seems like something that could dramatically increase the value of a rifle, giving a major incentive to forgers.
Without having information from previous owners (which I don't), there is probably no way to.
Current numbers from Amazon:
4 Used from $139.43
1 New from $502.85
I didn't know about this operation,
what did it do to resistance relations and how they felt about the allies?
French version of the Alamo
Elijah Jackson dead on mate
The battle of Camaron in 1863 is actually the French version of Alamo, literrally.
63 Legionnaires holding a house in Mexico to the death against between 2000 and 3000 Mexicans soldiers for several hours. At the end of the day, only 3 French soldiers were left standing ; 43 of them were killed and the others wounded and unable to fight anymore but they killed 190 Mexicans and wounded over 300 more.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camar%C3%B3n
Absolulety.....
Folks, if you search Amazon there are still a few cheap copies in different editions, got mine for $13
Is "Tears of glory: The heroes of Vercors, 1944" the same book as "Tears of Glory: The Betrayal of Vercors, 1944"? They're by the same author, but one of them is going for ~$150 and the other for ~$20.
If you think this is an interesting story, you should check out the Italian Partisan Republics such as the one in Ossola Valley, or in Sesia Valley.
Hello Ian, Something to add. The french resistance was full of communists.The allies never wanted a strong resistance to come out of the "liberation" In order to achieve this they always sent light weapons such as Sten guns which would not have allowed a sustained war.Some of these guys fought with nothing.
....aaaaaand it's $139 a copy.
I own a Webley Mark 1 revolver. Can you recommend a book which gives a good history on this model Webley.
Well, you were the price of the book has really gone up!
The cheapest I found on Amazon is 139.00 used, up to 500.00 new.
Where is the white flag now? What Ian doesn’t say, is the the fighters in the Vercors quickly realised no one was comming to help. Still they kept the defense going, knowing they were doomed. And today there is still (a few) people that can account for that as they lived it.
On Amazon right now the book is selling for $139 used and $500 new.
Wow the one new copy is now$502
Ian i have i question i found in my house two old guns if i send you photos of the guns can you tell me what guns are they?
Just bought a copy off EBay for $12 still less than $650 I paid for my MAS49/56. (:
It's already over $200 CAD on amazon.ca!
Goes to buy the book $139 is now the cheapest. Ian you've single handedly sold out the last of this book.
i would also like to recommend the following french book (title translates to : Truths about the Vercors tragedy) www.amazon.fr/V%C3%A9rit%C3%A9s-Sur-Drame-du-Vercors/dp/2953960252
This book explores the decisionmaking behind the whole affair, and also pinpoints several mistakes made by De Gaulle's government in Algiers, particularly in regard to french Communists. It's too complicated to be explained here, but it offers additional details on the battle, from somebody who played an integral part in its planning.
Cheapest price on Amazon was $140 as of 2 PM Mountain time... wow that was quick
Do you know anything why they put that brass mark on it? Was it just for coolness factor? It seems like it would make it just easier to identify as a resistance gun, if a german found it stashed in the woods or something.
Anyway, during the Vercors battle, with or without brass mark on his carbine, any resistance fighter caught by germans was often shot at once.
Max so might as well display it loud and proud
I don't understand these resistance fighters, freed from a system that would be their downfall, only to desperately struggle to replace said system where it had been. Strange, tres strange.
$139-502 for a copy now.
Wow.
Two triggers?
hey, I am from Grennoble
ps: nice video !!
Imagine what French resistance did to collaborators. They treated them worse than Germans. They got what was coming to them.
unfortunately the price of the books has already reached a price of $503 on (Amazon, Ebay, and able books)
great video as always. & im betting you've probably read it already, but check out ''Inside the Third Reich'' by Albert Speer. Nazi, yes, but also an incredibly intelligent man, who had 20 years in the Hague to write the book. he goes into extreme detail of production numbers & manufacturing hurdles of every sort of German produced weapon during his time as Minister of Armaments. & also the frivolous bickering of a dictatorial government.. great read though!
Nice
Looks like we bought out the cheap copies, but there is a different edition that is still cheap.
You can borrow this book electronically on the Internet Archive here: archive.org/details/tearsofglory0000unse
Watching this on the 25th and the book is already $150 :(
Le mémorial de Vassieux-en-Vercors
now 673$ for a hardcover on amazon! seems like you freaked out amazons pricing algorithm Ian!
I misinterpreted the title, I thought it was going to be a book that was also a gun. Lol
"4 Used from $139.43 1 New from $502.85 " Yeah, I think the cheap copies are gone.
This video at Lindybeige ( czcams.com/video/YO-Ocueehfc/video.html ) talks about the Resistance as a whole and he posits the idea that the resistance were importance on and arounf D-Day rather than being thoroughly useful .
God bless us all with the heart of a french lion should it come to dark times.
$140 now on Amazon. Right..
Hey Ian, why didn’t the French in ww1 simply dumb all efforts towards 5 shot berthier short rifles? instead we have lebels, 3 shot berthiers, and a seemingly limitless different models of carbines and rifles.
I will explain this in excellent detail in my upcoming book on French rifles. :)
He did actually explained all this in his videos on said French guns.
Go see them all asap XD
To the BF community, do you see the V?
my problem is if the author couldn't bother to edit basic mistakes about technical details, how can he be trusted to accurately describe history? for example, instead of writing "belts of ammunition for his Thompson", the author could have just written "ammunition for his weapon". I'd have less information but it wouldn't be erroneous.
were wally I’m guessing Ian wouldn’t be referencing it if the history at least wasn’t correct
Great video as always, Ian! I wanted to recommend an interesting book about the French Resistance. I found it in dad's library years ago and read it. Its called "Resistance: France 1940-1945" by Blake Ehrlich. a.co/f3xhyv6
now its 140.00 :-(
You just jinxed it by saying it’s a “cheap book”, like you did with “proud promise”, the book on French semi-auto rifle development, which was $40-90 before you mentioned it and now all copies are $500-2000...😡
damnit the book is 140 bucks now
Wow... NOT cheap anymore! >_
Ian, its like you're slightly healing the damage done by the author's poor hardware knowledge, may it salve his wounds (or make them sting thrice over)