Teenage Resistance Fighter
With the Maquisards in Occupied France
by Hubert Verneret
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Pub Date Dec 03 2017 | Archive Date Dec 31 2017
Description
• The unique first-hand account of a young man who joined the Louis maquis when it was a well-organized group operating out of bases in the forest of the Morvan. Daily he wrote candid descriptions of how they operated, and his experiences, thoughts and fears
• Published in two editions in France, with prefaces by well-known wartime leaders, it is available for the first time in English
• Engaging insight into the mind of a young man who passionately wants to contribute to liberating his country, but also struggles with the larger themes of war
• Appendices includes interviews that Verneret conducted with older maquisards after the war about their experiences
Hubert Verneret was a fourteen-year-old schoolboy in South Morvan, Burgundy, when the Germans invaded Poland, and fifteen when France fell. A boy scout, he helped refugees, aided the gendarmerie, moved wounded soldiers, and dug out bodies after air raids. Throughout, he wrote an eloquent diary that noted not only his actions but his thoughts and feelings as the French troops retreated and the Germans arrived.
In 1944, aged nineteen, he decided to join the local maquis resistance fighters, operating from a hidden base in the forest. Though constantly in danger as he undertook his duties, his youthful optimism turned to frustration as he felt he was fated never to fight the Germans, never to take a prisoner. As the Allies approached, the maquisards worked to upset and weaken the retreating Germans to aid the Allied advance.. Hubert details the joy with which the maquisards were welcomed in local villages when the fighting ended. Only as he listened to the speech given as the maquisards disband did he understand that his part in the war, while perhaps not heroic as that played by others, was still important in gaining the victory.
Years later, Hubert interviewed local maquisards to understand more about maquis history; their words and excerpts from the diary of a local civilian during the German retreat provide context to Hubert's youthful testimony. This first English edition of Hubert's diary retains the original prefaces by Colonel Buckmaster, chief of the French section of the SOE, and Colonel d'Escrienne, aide de camp to General de Gaulle.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Hubert Verneret was able to highlight the feelings of young people of his time; they match our memories exactly, whether we lived in France or in Great Britain, whether we were then wearing his Majesty's uniform, or the armbands of the maquisards."
--Colonel Maurice Buckmaster
Marketing Plan
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781612005508 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
John P, Media/Journalist
Hubert Verneret began writing a diary in 1938. The very first entry, on Hubert’s 13th birthday on 11 March, records Hitler securing Anschluss with Austria and his father observing that this could lead to war.
War did, of course, come and the diary, which makes up Part I of the book, records the 15-year-old Hubert’s reactions as war arrived at his home in Nevers on the Loire in Burgundy, first in the form of refugees and then in the broken shapes of wounded soldiers, before he and his family became refugees themselves, eventually returning home to life in occupied France.
This is all quite interesting but Hubert’s account becomes even more absorbing when, shortly after D-Day, he joined the Louis Maquis in the mountainous forests of Morvan, in the heart of Burgundy. Hubert’s hopes for active combat were not realised (“I have not encountered real fear, nor the intoxication of fighting”) but this aspect of events and the history of the Louis Maquis generally is covered by Part II of the book, which includes extracts from the diary of a Luzy resident, an interview with a Special Operations Executive officer operating in the region, and interviews with three Maquis fighters. Part III evaluates the role of the Louis Maquis and the French Resistance as a whole in the Liberation of France.
This relatively slim volume is book-ended by two Forewords (one by the Chief of the French section of SOE and the other by De Gaulle’s Aide-de-camp) and an Epilogue which pays tribute to the undoubted bravery of all those engaged in the French resistance.
There are gaps. There’s surprisingly little discussion, for example, of collaboration or of the process of épuration (the postwar purging of known or suspected collaborators), one of the interviewees simply telling the adult Hubert that, as far as he was aware, no maquisards engaged in retaliation. But what it does offer is a valuable primary source, written by a thoughtful young man combined with his and others’ mature reflections on what the Resistance achieved.
Assessments differ amongst historians regarding the precise contribution made to the war effort by the Resistance but ‘Teenage Resistance Fighter’ is certainly worth reading in order to understand how, not least amongst its achievements, the Maquis helped give the French nation a renewed sense of pride after the humiliations of defeat and Vichy.
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