Chaumont (UK) — Explanatory plaque on the Daines plateau

Le monument

In June 1940, the Armistice created a German-occupied zone. Haute-Savoie was the only département in the zone that remained free, with access to Switzerland, a neutral country: an advantage for exfiltrating escapees, fighters, airmen, Jews and others.

The Daines’ Plain, an important area of support of the French Resistance in Haute-Savoie, 1942 – 1944.

Circumstances

The Armistice of June 1940 created a German occupied zone in France. The Haute-Savoie in the free French Zone was unique in that it was the only departement bordering on neutral terriritory Switzerland and hence provided unique access for those fleeing the Occupying Authorities be they escaped prisoners, air force personnel, jews, etc.

Very soon the Resistance was recognised and supported by the co-ordinated Allied forces in London :

Charles and Laurence Blanc

Charles Blanc, a mountain guide from Saint-Gervais, upon demobilization decided, in order to continue the battle of the local sector of the Resistance, to purchase a farm on Chaumont’s Daines’ Plain.

In 1942 he founded an escape route for Allied Air Force personnel, and escapees from Geneva and the Daines South toward Perpignan and Gibraltar. This under cover of the Petainist Compagnons de France in Perpignan, and thereafter the Organisation de Résistance de l’Armée.

Charles Blanc, a member of Marksman, and his wife Laurence Blanc were particularly active in hosting and grouping together Allied Air Force personnels in the Daines. These were then accompanied by Charles, in his Compagnons de France uniform, to Perpignan where he handed over his « parcels » to the Catalan Resistance which together with Spaniards assured the passage across the Pyrenees.

In 1944, with increased Allied operations the number of aircraft downed increased exponentially as did the personnel needing repatriation to London.

MUSC missions for Operation Marksman (S.O.E.)

Elizabeth Devereaux-Rochester Agent Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.)

Richard Heslop Agent Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.)

Jean Rosenthal Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (B.C.R.A.)

Mission interalliée MUSC, réseau Marksman

Landing and Parachuting Service (SAP)

The SAP, founded in London in 1943, organised the dropping and recuperation of agents, but also 44 parachute supply flights of arms in the Haute-Savoie between February 1943 and August 1944.

Richard Andres, departmental head of SAP, shot in February 1944, was replaced by Lucien Mégevand, alias « Pan-Pan », in charge of the Mandallaz maquis as well as the l’Armée secrète of Rumilly. The latter also led his men in the beginning of July1944 in support of those fighting on the Semine Plain.

Lucien Mégevand

LOCAL PARACHUTE FLIGHTS : Consult map

• 5 December 1943, Montagne des Princes, Droisy,
• 5 March 1944, Bois d’Arlod , Éloise,
• 10 March 1944, Daines for Chaumont, Frangy and Chessenaz 10 containers collected by the teams of Berthet and Ducruet de Moisy.
• 28 and 29 April 1944, Éloise,
• 7 July 1944, Minzier,
• 12 August 1944, on Semine, Éloise

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Sources:

• Marguerite Avons, La filière décapitée, 1984.
• Michel Germain, Histoire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Haute-Savoie; rebelle et martyre, La Fontaine de Siloé, 2009.
• Michel Duparc, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, 1940-1944: La Résistance, l’armée secrète, le service de renseignement, La Salévienne, 2013.
• Laurent Neury, Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann, Pierre Flückiger, La Frontière entre la Haute-Savoie et Genève (1939-1945), Échos Saléviens N° 22, 2013.
• Jean-Louis Perquin, Les parachutages et pick-up clandestins, 1943-1944, tome II, Histoire & Collections, 2021.

Translation by Caroline Cartier