Vercors Plateau

The Vercors is a plateau in the département of Isère in Eastern France. The cliffs at its eastern edge face the city of Grenoble.

It comprises several resorts for cross-country skiing.

World War II maquis

Many members of a maquis of the French resistance died fighting in 1944 on the plateau.

In June 1944 is proclamed the Republic of Vercors, first democratic place in France since the beginning of the German occupation.

The 1944 fighting on the plateau followed the declaration of freedom from the German occupation in some towns and villages on the plateau. Also, on June 5, 1944, the Free France in London call the Vercors to take weapons and slow down the German army who could go to Normandy.

In response, German parachute and glider borne troops landed on the plateau (owing to the difficulty of access to the plateau by road) and brutally suppressed the uprising, terrorising the population of the plateau with gross acts of rape and torture.

Maquisards appealed to Free French agencies based in the United Kingdom to supply arms and heavier weaponry to counter the German action, but none was forthcoming.

There are rumours that base political motives of De Gaulle among others were the reason behind this failure to support the Vercors uprising .