Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire

The Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire (Free Corps of the Black Mountain) or C.F.M.N, was a fighting unit of the French resistance, during World War II, it was located in the mountainous area of the southwestern end of Massif Central. Its mission was to prevent German troops from going to reinforce the landing fronts in Normandy and Provence, via Montagne Noire.[2]

Corps franc de la Montagne noire
Armband of the C.F.M.N
ActiveApril – September 1944
Country France
Allegiance Free France
TypeParamilitary
Irregular military
Size900[1]
Garrison/HQMontagne Noire
EngagementsWorld War II
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Roger Mompezat
Henri Sevenet
Major Richardson
Antoine Carceler
Bernard Jouan de Kervenoaël

Background

Starting in October 1939, the French Army raised a number of Corps Franc, irregular military volunteer units, with the mission of carrying out ambush, raid and harassing operations. In 1942 the Secret Army of the French resistance was created. In February 1944 the combined forces of the Resistance became known as the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, it was placed under the command of General Marie-Pierre Kœnig, the Corps francs units were put under the command of Serge Ravanel.[3] The Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire was set up independently, taking its orders directly from London looking to federate the various local groups into a much larger force, in order to act behind German lines when the Allies finally landed in France.[4]

Formation
Members of the Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire

Special Operations Executive agent Henri Sévenet, known as Commandant Mathieu, was parachuted in September 1943 in south-west France with the mission of organising a fighting unit to support the Provence landings. In Toulouse, he met Roger Mompezat, who had fought in the colonial infantry in 1918 and was known in the Resistance as Commandant Roger. Together with another SOE agent, Harry Despaigne, known as Major Richardson, a trained wireless operator, they organised the parachuting of weapons into the region.[5]

In April 1943, under instructions from London, they set up a Free Corps in the region of Montagne noire. Supplies are weapons start being sent from Algiers, the drop off is on the plateau of Pic de Nore.[6]

They divided the group into 5 camps: Plo Del May, Fonbruno, Le Rietgé, Co de David, La Galaube.[7] The Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire had at some point 21 nationalities represented. A military instructor, Bernard Jouan de Kervenoaël, known as Capitaine Saint-Michel, oversaw the training of the troops. Of three platoons, one was composed of Frenchmen, the second of Spanish Republicans and former Russian POWs who had been drafted into the Wehrmacht but deserted, and the third was a Jewish platoon. That last platoon was called the Trumpeldor platoon, its identity was highlighted by wearing blue-and-white shoulder flashes.[7][N 1]

Political tension

The C.F.M.N was in direct contact with London through Richardson. Heavily armed and highly effective, the group attracted the envy and hostility of less well-provided maquis, who regarded them as little better than mercenaries working for the Allies[11], according to historian Robert Gildea, the group also refused to answer to the FFI and turned away communist volunteers.[7] It must also be said that three days after the Normandy landing the C.F.M.N had reached its maximum capacity and therefore started refusing volunteers.[12]

Operations
Memorial stele commemorating the men of the Corps franc de la Montagne Noire killed on 20 July 1944.

On 9 June divided into three groups, they attack a convoy for the first time. A few days later on 12 June, they attack another convoy between Mazmet and Les Martyrs causing important damages. On 29 June, near Saissac, in a place called la Rouge, 7 German lorries with 30 men arriving from Lezignan are ambushed, eight German soldiers are killed, three are wounded; two of the maquisards are killed.[13] On 14 July a group of 400 men marched defiantly through the little town of Revel, singing La Marseillaise before running back to the mountains; five days later on 19 July the Corps-franc attack another German convoy, at Pont d'Alzau on Route Nationale 113, inflicting heavy casualties and taking prisoners. On 20 July, near Alzau, at the intersection known as La Prune, 15 members of the C.F.M.N attacked and stopped Panzers with grenades, fighting them for over two and a half hours.[13]

As soon as they found out the location of the group, on 20 July 1944, the Germans launched an air assault in the early morning, bombarding the 5 camps, many are killed including one of the Commanders, Henri Sévenet.[14] Right after the bombardment, the 11th Panzer Division is sent to completely eliminate the group together with a German army brigade of 1,500 men. The C.F.M.N is pushed back and separated into smaller units. On 23 August 1944, nine maquisards are killed near Pont de la Mouline. In September most of the fighters joined the First Army in the liberation of France.[1]

Honours

At the Galaube camp, a Memorial stele was erected in tribute to the resistance fighters of the Free Corps of the Black Mountain who died in combat on 20 July 1944. On it are the names of Henri Sevenet, known as Commandant Mathieu, and his three comrades killed the same day in combat, Simon Gembarowski, Marius Barnes and Marcel Maurel.

Notes
Footnotes
  1. Pierre Loeb aka Pierrot who had served in the French Air Force in 1940, decided, in the spring of 1944, to organised a Jewish maquis at L’Espinassier in the Tarn. Just before D-Day, the Jewish group was ordered to join the Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire, It was called the Trumpeldor platoon in honour of a Zionist hero killed in Palestine in 1920.[8][9][10]
Citations
  1. Paul Debauges 1986, p. 234.
  2. Paul Debauges 1986, p. 1.
  3. H. R. Kedward 1993, p. 183.
  4. Robert Gildea 2015, p. 478.
  5. Lucien Maury 1980, p. 133.
  6. Roger Mompezat 1994, p. 8.
  7. Robert Gildea 2015, p. 527-528.
  8. Renée Poznanski 2001, p. 454.
  9. Baumel Judith Tydor Laqueur Walter 2001, p. 556.
  10. Adam Rayski 2015, p. 250.
  11. Robert Gildea 2015, p. 479.
  12. G Bouladou 1964, p. 55-80.
  13. Roger Mompezat 1994, p. 14.
  14. Robert Gildea 2015, p. 529.
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References
  • Paul Debauges (1986). Histoire de la Résistance dans la Haute-Garonne (in French). Milan. ISBN 978-2-86726-093-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • H. R. Kedward (11 March 1993). In Search of the Maquis : Rural Resistance in Southern France 1942-1944. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-159178-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Adam Rayski (15 August 2015). The Choice of the Jews under Vichy: Between Submission and Resistance. University of Notre Dame Pess. ISBN 978-0-268-09183-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Roger Mompezat (1994). Le Corps franc de la Montagne noire: journal de marche, avril-septembre 1944 (in French). Les Anciens du Corps franc de la Montagne noire.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Baumel Judith Tydor Laqueur Walter (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13811-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Renée Poznanski (2001). Jews in France During World War II. UPNE. ISBN 978-1-58465-144-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Robert Gildea (1 September 2015). Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-28035-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lucien Maury (1980). La Résistance audoise (1940-1944) (in French). Comité d'histoire de la Résistance du département de l'Aude.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • G Bouladou (1964). "les Maquis Du Languedoc: Dans La Libération". Revue d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale. 14 (55): 55–80. JSTOR 25729914.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading
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