Come stroll with me...

The dense forest of the Col

… along the Col de la Tourette, an upland route through the peaks of the Cévennes.  There’s an important piece of history to be discovered here…

If you look at a map, you’ll see that the col sits on the upland between some higher peaks of the Cévennes.  As the RN88 follows the col through to the city of Mende, you are overlooked by the heights of Pelgeires at about 900 metres (around 2,950 feet) to your right.  On your left in a high valley is the village of Nojaret (birthplace of Jean-Antoine Chaptal), which sits at around 786 metres (2,770 feet) above sea level.  Whichever way you look, you will see dense forest.

As you make your way to Mende, just before you reach the village of Badaroux, you will find a small aire de repos.  And it is worth stopping to discover what happened here.

The Parc national des Cévennes covers 937 square kilometres (362 square miles) of mountains, dense forests, rivers and sparsely populated remote villages.  So, it probably isn’t surprising that this vast area became a haven for cells of resistance during the occupation of France.  Being on the southern and eastern edge of the Massif Central, the forests and the isolated villages became the perfect cover for the maquisards of the Bir-Hakeim.  Formed in 1942, they mainly operated in the Aveyron, Hérault and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Led by Commander Barot – a charismatic and decisive leader although he was not a career soldier – the Bir-Hakeim group undertook many acts of sabotage.  In mid-March 1944, when the scrutiny from the occupiers became unbearable, Barot negotiated with the existing maquis in the Cévennes to move his army (around 200 hundred men at that time) into the hills and valleys of Lozère.  Once there, Barot made concerted efforts to unite the disparate groups of the maquis within the area into his force.  On April 7th and 8th, 1944, the ‘biraquins’ as they were referred to locally, ambushed and annihilated a patrol of Feldgendarmerie.  This action triggered a massive response from the Waffen SS.  The maquisards managed to escape the encirclement and dispersed into the mountains.

Needing to regroup, Barot set a rallying point on the Causse Méjean and put plans in place to move his army towards Mende.  The trucks of the convoy were seen, warning messages were sent to Mende, and the occupying forces mobilised a counter-offensive.  On Sunday, May 28th (Whit Sunday), the attack by the occupiers surprised the maquisards.

Commander Barot was killed along with 34 of his men.  The others fled or surrendered and were taken prisoner.  The Gestapo had a dedicated interest in the men of Bir-Hakeim, and the 27 captured men were taken to Mende for interrogation.  On the morning of Monday, May 29th, the prisoners were loaded onto a truck and brought out to Col de la Tourette and executed.

As a reminder of that tragedy, all that remains is a stela beside the RN 88.  The front of the tall stone faces the road, but as I stand here watching the traffic, I wonder how many people actually know what it says or why it is here.  The translation is below.

so that you can live freely, in this ravine on the 29th of May, 1944, 27 maquisards from the group Bir Hakeim were tortured and shot after 33 of their comrades had been killed in battle at La Parade

It was late September when I visited, the workers at the oil refineries were on strike, garages had their forecourts closed off, and the roads were quiet because fuel was so hard to come by.  Standing there on the Col, in the silence, seemed the only appropriate thing to do...

There will be more about the locations in and around Mende that are used in my books in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, if you want to read more about the history of the city and the area, click Here