On 21 July 1944, through the “Bettina” operation, the German general Karl Pfaum enlisted over 15,000 men supported by an air wing. The massif was surrounded on all sides. The Luftwaffe dropped three waves of gliders over Vassieux and surrounding hamlets. The Resistance fighters were caught off guard.

After a week of fighting, the Vercors was on its knees. Over 600 Resistance fighters and a hundred Germans were killed. The civilian population paid a heavy price – 201 people were killed, 41 others were deported and 573 houses were destroyed. For all this suffering, on 4 August 1945, Vassieux-en-Vercors was named a ‘fellow Liberation city’ by decree. This rare honour has been awarded to four other French cities - Paris, Nantes, Grenoble and the Ile de Sein.

The Vassieux-en-Vercors National Cemetery is home to the graves of 187 Resistance fighters and civilians who died for France during the fighting that took place on the Vercors plateau in July 1944.

This cemetery was built in 1948 on the initiative of the Vercors National Society of Pioneers and Veterans, and holds the bodies of battle victims from 1944 that were buried in a temporary cemetery located in Pouyettes, to the north of the village of Vassieux. The cemetery is State property and is home to 187 individual graves where 80 Resistance fighters, 58 Vassieux locals and 49 unidentified bodies are buried.

Outside the cemetery, there are the metal structures of two types of gliders used by the Luftwaffe – a DFS 230 and a 242 Gotha.

Next to the cemetery, a Memorial Hall preserves the memory of all victims of the Vercors where a plaque shows that the body of Sergeant Raymond Anne, a Resistance fighter from Vassieux, lies in the crypt of Mont-Valérien. He was considered a true symbol of the sacrifice of all deaths of French Resistance fighters.

Nearby, the Vassieux-en-Vercors Museum of the Resistance and the memorial of the Resistance in Col de la Chau, provide insight into the events that took place during World War II in the Vercors region.

The spirit of Glières

The Haute-Savoie was liberated by Resistance forces, acting alone, on 19th August 1944.

Glières was glorified by Free France radio in London as the true image of the France to be liberated in contrast to the subservient, corrupt France of the Vichy regime. With men from different Resistance forces and with forced labour evaders from all over France, from all backgrounds, of all persuasions and of every religion, with their motto “live in freedom or die”, the men of Glières restored France’s scorned and betrayed values, movingly illustrated by the Morette necropolis, with its stars of David among the Latin crosses and the cockades of the Spanish Republic alongside the French cockade.

Keeping the spirit of Glières alive

Today, with the support of the Association des Glières, staff from the heritage and citizenship department of the Haute-Savoie council welcome and guide the thousands of visitors who come every year.

Among them, the citizenship education of thousands of schoolchildren who come to Morette and the Glières plateau under their teachers’ supervision is enhanced by these inspiring sites, which show them what France represents and how we should live together despite our differences: the France of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Within the walls of the national cemetery is a memorial lantern, which serves as the commune's war memorial. In 1921, after having granted - in November 1920 - the principle of a permanent plot for the soldiers of the commune who had died for France, the Morvillars municipal council decided to erect the commune's war memorial within the walls of the military cemetery. This memorial, in the form of an 8 metre lantern, was inaugurated in 1923. Crowned by a Greek cross, this monument therefore carries the names of the 32 natives of Morvillars who died in 1914-1918 and those of the five who died in 1939-1945. Twelve graves of soldiers originating from Morvillars surround this monument, arranged in a semi-circle.

In 1914, the fortified town of Belfort was a major part of France's defence. The 14 forts controlled a gap between the Swiss border and the Vosges. During the first days of the war, a new occupation such as the ones of 1814 and 1871 was feared. That is why a state of siege was put in place by the governor. More than 20,000 women, children, elderly, sick people and foreigners were evacuated to neighbouring departments. Equipment, supplies, buildings...everything was requisitioned as part of the war effort.

However, during the entire conflict, Belfort remained untouched by the major offensives. The front was 20 kilometres away. Daily life was however marked by bombings and the flow of convoys of the wounded. As the war continued and the combats became increasingly violent, the number of wounded continued to rise. Because of such an influx, the 500-bed military hospital was quickly overwhelmed.  The health services had to adapt, and requisitioned public and private buildings. And so the Dollfus Mieg et Compagnie spinning mill, schools in the Montbéliard area and the Rue de Châteaudun as well as the Sainte-Marie secondary school were transformed into temporary hospitals. Adolphe Pégoud, the French fighter ace with six victories under his belt, was transferred to one of these structures after being shot down over Petit Croix on 31 August 1915. He was buried on 3 September in the cemetery at Brasse, where he remained before being exhumed in 1924, when he was buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

Altkirch National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the Alsace offensive in August 1914 and during the Campaign for France in June 1940. Established in 1920 for the graves of soldiers who had been buried throughout the Belfort-Altkirch region and southeast of Mulhouse, it was developed until 1935. Covering 5,153 sqm, the cemetery holds the mortal remains of 1,734 French soldiers, including 139 in two ossuaries, together with 15 Russian soldiers from the First World War. 36 French soldiers killed in 1940 also lie at rest here.

After the Second World War, this cemetery was reorganised in order to bring together the bodies of 1,045 French soldiers and prisoners-of-war from the Haut-Rhin, Germany and Austria who died for France between 1940 and 1945. The bodies of 2,238 Frenchmen including 1,300 in individual graves, 45 Czechs, 19 Russians, one Briton and one Serbian lie here. Two ossuaries contain the mortal remains of 938 soldiers. During the First World War, nearly 25,000 French soldiers died on the slopes of the Hartmannswillerkopf, also known as the "Mangeur d'hommes" (Man-eater) or "Montagne de la Mort" (Mountain of Death).

In front of the cemetery stands the National Monument containing the bodies of nearly 12,000 unknown French soldiers in an ossuary built into a crypt, together with three chapels - Catholic, Protestant and Jewish.

Above the monument, there is the Altar of La Patrie. On its sides it bears the names of the cities which donated money to build the memorial. On either side of the entrance to the monument, two bronze Winged Victory statues stand guard, the work of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. The memorial is overlooked by the summit of HWK, where many reminders of the battles that took place here in 1915 are conserved, and which to this day remains a cemetery open to the sky.