The original l'As de Cœur maquis was part of the Gaullist
AS-MUR (Armée Sécret-Mouvements Unis de la Résistance).
The Armée Sécret (Secret Army) was the military branch
of the MUR. The MUR was the name given to the fusion of three of the largest
southern résistance groups; Combat, Libération and
Franc-Tireur. They were widely spread over south-central France,
mainly the départments of Corréze and Lot. Géneral
Marius Guedin (pictured), alias colonel «GEORGES», commanded
the 7,000 maquisards of the AS-MUR Corréze.
Prior to 6 June 1944 the maquis was primarily busy organizing and receiving
"parachutages" of arms and equipment from England, and
distributing or concealing them. They trained with the new weapons, passed
information to England on German troop locations and strength, and occasionally
raided German convoys and guardhouses. Following orders from England, the
maquis waited to act on a larger scale until the proper codes were broadcast
over the BBC, signaling the general uprisings prior to and during D-Day.
All maquis were encouraged to "execute well-timed guerrilla operations
but avoid any large scale action that could expose the civilian population
to reprisals." For example, a réseau (résistance
network) of cheminots (French railway workers) led by an SOE agent
named Tony Brooks, located the limited stock of flatcars in the area capable
of carrying tanks and passing under France's bridges. He and his men spent
many nights working abrasive paste (supplied from England) into the axle
bearings of each flatcar in preparation for D-Day. Some groups had specific
missions to perform upon hearing coded messages over the BBC. These missions
included blowing bridges and fuel dumps, cutting telephone lines (to force
the Germans to use their radios, the transmissions of which were being
read in real tim
e by the decoders in Bletchley Park), destroying
train tracks and rolling stock, removing road signs, constructing road
blocks and blowing up electrical power stations, among other things.
After D-Day, a mysterious shortage of flatcars forced the 2. SS Division
(Das Reich) to move through the départment of the Corréze
by road on their way to the Normandy beachhead. The division's 1,400 vehicles
(including 209 tanks) and 15,000 men moved out of their base in Montauban
on the morning of 8 June, 1944.
The first action against the leading elements of the 2. SS was approximately
55 miles north of Montauban, near the village of Groslejac. The 3rd Section,
Rémy company of l'As de Cœur tried to hold a bridge
over the Dordogne river, killing 6 Germans in a burst of machingun fire.
The leading panzer-grenadiers quickly recovered from the ambush and broke
through, killing all the maquisards and several civilians. Not long afterwards,
at Rouffilac, another As de Cœur unit (1st company, approximately
30 men) defended a roadblock, destroying a German motorcycle and a truck,
damaging a tank, and killing 52 Germans, with one maquisard killed, 3 wounded.
Somewhere along the road a German repair crew, left behind to fix a tank,
was set upon and killed. Ten miles farther on in Cressensac the 1st Section,
6th company pinned down the leading German soft-skinned vehicles (headquarters)
and infantry at a crossroads close to town. The maquisards held for 3 hours,
until armored vehicles moved into the village, and a 75mm Pak gun opened
fire on the maquisard positions. The maquis withdrew, leaving 4 dead.
On the morning of June 9th, 1st Section 3rd company of l'As de Cœur
with 26 men under Sgt. Holtzmann held the bridge at Bretenoux for 4 hours
and 30 minutes, losing 18 dead. Maquisards at Beaulieu a few miles further
on also exchanged fire with the 2. SS, but withdrew. This was the last
action against the 2. SS by l'As de Cœur, but the division
still had a long way to go, and it was harrassed in a similar manner all
the way to the Loire river. Other German divisions moving north experienced
the same difficulties.
The maquisards of l'As de Cœur spent from the 10th to the 16th
of June re-organizing and training new members. Also on the 16th, the maquisards
came under the command of (London based) General Koenig, thus creating
the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI). The first
orders were "...armed groups must continue their guerrilla activities
against enemy communications and harass them unremittingly." From
then on, the maquis was mainly occupied with setting up ambushes along
the main roads in the area. They ambushed German troop and supply convoys,
attacked German and Milice garrisons, took prisoners, and transmitted information
on troop strength, identification and location to England. When the advancing
Allies entered the area, many maquisards joined the regular/Free French
army, in fact creating several new divisions, and continued to fight until
the end of the war.