France Croix de Guerre 1939-1945

[PKeating]

DIVISIONAL ORDERS

BOISSET Jean - F.F.I.

Joined the Maquis in May 1943 and, from the start, was noticed for his verve and his authority over his men, notably on the 11th of December 1943 when his camp (the camp at SEMNOL [sic]) was attacked by the enemy and he succeeded in leading all his men to safety. leaving just two killed in action.

On April 7th 1944, on his way back from a joint operation with the Maquis of the Ain, he was arrested at La Gluse [sic] (Ain).

Deported to Buchenwald, he returned with his health completed ruined.

THIS CITATION CONFIRMS THE AWARD OF THE CROIX DE GUERRE WITH SILVER STAR.

Paris, March 27th, 1947

etc etc

*sic: place names misspelt by clerk. Should read "Semnoz" and "La Cluse".

[PKeating]

Jean Boisset's Croix de Guerre and his citation was eventually sent to Colonel Romans-Petit at the Maison du Maquis at 5 rue Faubourg Poissoni?re, Paris with the medal on 12.5.1950 for relay to Jean Boisset. This is the folder protecting the citation, which is on better quality paper. On the citation itself, Colonel Romans Petit is also noted as at the Maison du Maquis, 83 rue de la Faisanderie, Paris 16, with a later annotation for the change of address. The medal is an exceptionally fine striking and an ensemble like this is extremely rarely seen. More later, unless someone here wishes to contribute any remarks about the Semnoz FFI, Colonel Romans Petit of the Ain FFI and that aspect of the war in France...

It was thanks to Chris Boonzaier that I got this. I was bidding from my hospital bed on an iPhone with the nurses jumping up and down over cell use in the intensive care unit...

PK

Edited May 27, 2009 by PKeating

[Ulsterman]

:Cat-Scratch: ...took the corner on the bike a bit too fast did we?

[PKeating]

Nah...boxing-related cranial trauma. One of the 30-plus lesions they found in my brain decided to react badly to the latest hard knock. But I don't have a lazy left eye anymore. Cue: Life of Brian: Always look on the bright si-i-de of life....

Anyway, whilst doing some research on the Semnoz Maquis the other day, I stumbled across this website: http://www.cc-pays-albysurcheran.fr/chapitre3_fr_35_37.html# Check out the entry about halfway down. As we know, Jean Boisset survived Buchenwald and it would appear that he regained his health sufficiently to live to a grand old age and to make recordings about his resistance activities. Here, below, is Jean Boisset, Professor of German and ex-Commander of the Semnoz Resistance.

The internet can sometimes throw up surprising things...

[PKeating]

Henri Petit, alias Colonel Romans Petit, Chief of the Arm?e Secr?te in the Ain region and wrote Les Obstin?s, published by Janicot in 1945. Compagnon de la Lib?ration, Commandeur de la L?gion d?Honneur et Distinguished Service Order (UK). (French Government archives)

The man to whom Jean Boisset's medal and document were entrusted, Henri Petit, son of a French railway executive, was born in 1897. In 1915, he volunteered and rose to sergeant in the 13e Bataillon de Chasseurs. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour and was also decorated with the Croix de Guerre with Bronze Palm. Commissioned through the Saint-Cyr officers' academy in 1918, he was posted to the B.R. 127 bomber squadron. Ending WW1 as a Sous-Lieutenant, he went back to college in Lyons and thence into public relations for publishing houses before founding the Stefa advertising agency in 1928.

Recalled in 1939 as a Colonel of the Reserve in the Air Force, Petit commanded the Nice and Cannes airbases and refused to recognise the armistice in June 1940. Unable to reach London, he moved to the Ain region in 1942 where he established contacts with the local Resistance. By that December, Petit was in charge of finding safe lodgings for young men on the run from being sent to Germany and other parts of the Greater German Reich for forced labour. In June 1943, Petit had formed leadership and training schools and camps for Ain maquisards of the FFI and Arm?e Secr?te. Each camp comprised no more than sixty men to facilitate greater security and mobility. In September, under the command of Romans-Petit, the Ain maquisards raided and emptied a Vichyite Chantiers de la Jeunesse depot in Artemare and a military supply depot in Bourg-en-Bresse.

Romans-Petit became chief of the Ain d?partement Arm?e Secr?te in October 1943. On November 11th 1943, he organised the famous - and illegal - ceremonial parade involving 250 AS and FFI men in the town of Oyonnax, laying a wreath in the form of a floral Cross of Lorraine at the war memorial in front of crowds of delirious townsfolk before marching out of the town at the head of his men in a highly professional show of military force. Remember, this was not after the D-Day landings. These men did this in a very hostile environment, where they were not only up against the Germans but a substantial proportion of their own countrymen, who saw them as brigands and threats to law and order and the pax germanica. The parade was filmed and reported by the underground press and the BBC in London, and was probably the point at which the Allies began to see the French Resistance as a force to be reckoned with...and respected.

Early in 1944, the Ain Maquis counted some 2,000 men under arms, all well-trained in the use of automatic weapons, sabotage and guerrilla fighting. "Mobility is your strength", Romans-Petit told them, again and again and again. They were taught that their camps were not forts to be defended to the last man. If attacked, they had to slip away into the forests. Remember Boisset's citation, rewarding him, amongst other things, for leading his men to safety away from the German force attacking their mountain top redoubt in a grotto on the Semnoz peak. Romans-Petit also assumed command of AS forces in Haute-Savoie. In daily touch with the SOE in London, Romans-Petit designated the Gli?res plateau - familiar to all students of the French Resistance - as the DZ for arms drops in January 1944 before returning to the Ain.

As the spring arrived, the Germans decided to tackle the Ain Maquis. 5,000 German soldiers and auxiliary Police and SS-Polizei units mounted an offensive against Maquis bases, killing hundreds of maquisards. Romans-Petit and others escaped on skis through German lines. On April 6th 1944, German forces launched an offensive in the area of Amb?rieu-en-Bugey, some 60km north-east of Lyons. Romans-Petit ordered his forces to disperse and go to ground. And so, the next day, Jean Boisset, commander of the Semnoz Maquis, was captured in the town of La Cluse as he and some of his men were heading back by a roundabout route to Semnoz, some 55km east of Lyons and about 10km south of Annecy. La Cluse lies about 25km to the north-east of Amb?rieu-en-Bugey. That he survived capture let alone Buchenwald is quite astonishing. For his citation to refer to his damaged health speaks volumes for the state in which he must have been when he was repatriated, as does the apparent inability of the authorities to find him in 1947 and again in 1950, when they eventually sent his Croix de Guerre ? l'Ordre de l'Arm?e and citation to his former commander, Henri Romans-Petit.

And yes, I am going to order the DVD featuring the elderly Jean Boisset talking about his time as chief of the Semnoz Maquis!

PK

[PKeating]

Some more information about Semnoz: http://loprazcondus.canalblog.com/archives...02/6750351.html

Semnoz.

The lake of Annecy seen from the top of Semnoz.

A couple of weeks before Boisset joined them, the Semnoz Maquis had been with Odette Sansom when her future husband Peter Churchill was dropped on the Semnoz on April 15th 1943. A few hours later, they were both captured. In April 1944, Jean Boisset and his men probably found themselves fighting sub-units of SS-Polizei Regiment 19, later assigned as bodyguards to the fleeing Vichy government and Marshall P?tain in September 1944. SS-Polizei Regiment 19 was particularly brutal and around eighty of its members taken prisoner by the Maquis paid the price in September 1944 when executed in retaliation for the unit's summary execution of Maquis prisoners and French civilians.

PK

[Ulsterman]

Odette!! An Odette connection. Gold!! Musem quality.

I think you get the MVP prize for best historical piece on GMIC this month (and there has been some VERY stiff competition, esp. given that 5th Curassiers' 1809 Diary).

Now THAT is a fantastic piece..... A REAL resistance hero and Buchenwald survivor to boot!

Had you an inkling when you bid on this?

[PKeating]

I realised that he was more than rank and file because of the reference to "his men" but had no idea that he was a Maquis chieftan. I was also stunned that he had survived Buchenwald and was very moved by the reference to his ruined health and the evident difficulty the authorities had in locating him afterwards. Troubled war veterans is something of a theme for me, for want of a better way of putting it, and once Boonzaier sent me the link and I saw the documents, I was blown away. I knew about Romans Petit. That this ensemble was addressed to Romans Petit left me rather awestruck as well. As you said, real Resistance heroes. These chaps were out there in the ulu before it became fashionable or advisable.

P

Edited May 28, 2009 by PKeating

[joe campbell]

ulster nailed it: always a most interesting read!

these men deserve the recognition you facilitate.

are you on the mend? hope so!

joe

[Chris Boonzaier]

Fantastic set, and much more so when you get the CD!!!!!!!

[Stogieman]

Very inspiring group. But more importantly...... stop taking the "hard knocks"! Feel better soon!

[PKeating]

I feel grand! Thanks, though!

Regarding the Odette link, Odette Sansom and her future husband Peter Churchill were captured within a few hours of Churchill's parachute landing on the Semnoz plateau on 15.4.1944, Boisset himself did not join the Maquis until the following month, according at any rate to the citation, which does contain errors, but, yes, given that Odette was with the Semnoz Maquis, there is certainly a link as many of the men who served with Boisset would have known Odette.

Jean Boisset would appear to have run into German troops participating in Operation Fr?hlung against, primarily, the Ain Maquis. Beginning on 7.4.1944 and ending on 18.4.1944, Fr?hlung was carried out by 157. Reserve-Division, assisted by units attached for the operation. Boisset and his men may have run into elements of Gebirgsj?ger-Ersatz-Regiment 1, namely Reserve-Gebirgsj?ger-Btl. I./98 or 99, whose overlapping areas of operations covered Semnoz. It should be noted that Gebirgsj?ger-Ersatz-Regiment 1 had nothing to do with 1. Gebirgs-Division.

When 157. Reserve-Division and supporting units launched Unternehmen Fr?hlung, Colonel Romans-Petit ordered his units to disperse, in line with his sensible policy of avoiding direct engagement where possible with enemy forces, a policy observed by special forces and insurgents in many conflicts. However, the Maquis still carried out acts of sabotage and nocturnal hit-and-run attacks against the Germans, whose reprisals against local villagers were quite savage.

157. Reserve-Division, which took part in other anti-partisan or "anti-terrorist" operations, including Vercors, was redesignated 8. Gebirgs-Division in March 1945. It was the only Wehrmacht division deployed continuously against partisans for more than a year. Although some of the division's sub-units were accused of war crimes, the divisional commander, Generalleutnant Karl Pflaum, disapproved of the excessive cruelty of Sicherheits-Polizei and SD units in the area and many French historians contend that the 157th Reserve Division actually behaved far better in the field than some recent accounts suggest, despite the fact that the division was essentially under SD control. Nevertheless, Generalleutnant Pflaum was imprisoned for more than four years by the French.

PK