The Cruel Victory (book review)

The Cruel Victory

By Paddy Ashdown

William Collins Books, Hardback, 472 pages

ISBN 978-0-00-752080-0

I continue to plow through my unread book pile at a furious rate of knots. 

This book was written by former MP Paddy Ashdown who prior to his career as an MP was an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos and the commander of an SBS (Special Boat Service) unit and saw active service in the 1960s. So the author understands unconventional warfare and politics which makes him well qualified to analyse the tactical and political side of the events detailed here.

Basically the book covers a series of events which led to nearly 4,000 French Maquis, a lot of them poorly trained and all woefully under-equipped, becoming trapped and facing around 12,000 Germans on the Vercors Massif in July 1944. There are some very good maps and photos of the area and major characters.

The author goes into great detail of how and why this event happened and the repercussions not just for the Allies and Germans, but for the local population who suffered terrible reprisals in the aftermath.

The whole thing began with De Gaulle wanting to strengthen his claim as the true leader of France and to do this he came up with a scheme to combine all the resistance cells into the FFI (French Forces of the Interior) under one umbrella, thus giving him an "army" on French soil. One of the plans was for the resistance to form a series of mountain redoubts, supplied by air by the Allies (possibly with Paratrooper support/reinforcements). These areas to be seized and fortified by the resistance and held as friendly islands behind enemy lines to assist and support any allied invasion of the continent. One of the areas considered was the Vercors Massif.

Unfortunately as with all plans, the idea looked fine on paper, there was man-power available - former French Army plus a large number of civilian recruits. The SOE (Special Operations Executive) dropped in agents and communications specialists and once things were more organised and drop zones found, weapons and supplies were also sent. However and to quote from the movie A Bridge too Far "what about the Germans"?  The Allied planners seemed to think the Germans would be so distracted by any invasion that they would simple not be able to organise or mount any counter operation! Also there was some confusion in the Allied chain of command as to whom controlled/commanded these possible redoubts and to when they should be formed.

What eventually happened was the resistance listened to De Gaulle`s D-Day call to arms and rose up against their German occupiers with the Allies still hundreds of miles away in Normandy with no chance of getting to them. The local German commander gathered all available forces and launched a massive attack on the Massif; the under equipped Maquis were forced to abandon their camps and scatter. Many were killed, but a suprising number simply hid out in the forests and hills until the Germans finished their sweep and broke off the engagement.

This is a very interesting story, not one I was familar with. The bravery of the young Maquis to stand and fight against a numerical superior as well as better trained/organised enemy supported by aircraft and some armoured vehicles comes across very well. The author tries to rationalise the confusion and different view points of the Allies which eventually led to the battle, which he feels could have been much worse, had it not been for certain Maquis commanders acting the way they had.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book for me comes during the final German assault on the Massif where they committed a specialist anti-partizan paratroop unit using DFS 230 gliders with retro rockets and parachutes to shorten their landing distance plus some Gotha 242 gliders to bring in supplies/heavy weapons! I have never read about such an airborne unit being used in France in 1944, with a little tinkering and some work this may make and interesting tabletop game!

Overall a interesting and very unique story about an aspect of World War Two which I had previously only touched upon.