The Battle of the Glieres Plateau was one of the most dramatic and tragic episodes of the French Resistance. In February 1944, 465 maquisards — French resistance fighters — occupied the Glieres Plateau, a high-altitude limestone table in the Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps. They were joined by former prisoners of war, Polish and Spanish anti-fascists, and escaped Jewish refugees.
The maquisards were hoping to establish a Free Republic of the Glieres — a liberated zone in occupied France that would demonstrate the strength of the Resistance to the Allies and the French population. They were resupplied by parachute drops from the British SOE, which brought in weapons, ammunition, food, and a British officer, Captain Tom Morel, to coordinate operations.
On March 26, 1944, the Germans and Vichy Milice forces launched Operation Corporal against the plateau with approximately 10,000 troops, including Gebirgsjager mountain infantry, Vichy police, and artillery. The maquisards, armed with old rifles, a few machine guns, and homemade explosives, fought for three weeks against forces that outnumbered them 20 to 1.
The Germans used artillery, mortars, and air strikes. The maquisards had no anti-aircraft weapons. When the plateau finally fell on April 2, 1944, 129 maquisards had been killed in action or executed after capture. Many of the wounded were tortured and shot. The survivors scattered into the mountains.
The Glieres Plateau became a symbol. The phrase Glieres stands, Glieres falls, Glieres lives again was adopted by the Resistance. Today, the site is a national memorial. But the battle is little known outside France, and the details of the German retaliation — including executions of wounded prisoners in hospitals — remain buried in local archives.