THE AIN MAQUIS - The Victorious Resistance

With the influx of STO draft evaders, the first maquis camps appeared in the mountains. Despite numerous German attempts to wipe them out, their numbers continued to grow. Having become FFI in 1944, the maquisards organised themselves into companies and franc-tireur groups. The Ain maquis thus brought together men and women from diverse backgrounds in the Bugey mountains, united around a common ideal: liberation and total victory. 

The Ain is home to three of the cities awarded the Medal of the Resistance and two of the fifteen establishments so honoured. Making this glorious history known is part of the necessary duty of remembrance!

Table of contents: 

1. The Occupation — Vichy takes hold in the Ain.
2. Resisting — saying No.
3. Organising — a structured, departmental resistance.
4. 1943, an unexpected boost: the STO.
5. Winter 1943–1944: the reorganisation.
6. Liberation and purge.

The authors: 

Doctor of History, Jérôme Croyet is curator of the collections at the Musée de l'Empéri and the author of several works on the Armies of Napoleon. 

Collector and historian Stéphane Lavit is the author of works on the 1st and 45th US Infantry Divisions in the series "Les Unités alliés de la Libération" published by Histoire & Collections.