Hubert Verneret (above as a 19 year old) was a member of the French Resistance during 1944 in Burgundy and fought in many ambush and sabotage operations, despite only being in his teens. He wrote a diary during the fighting, which is now being published in English for the first time by Casemate UK – Teenage Resistance Fighter. Hubert is now 92 years old and wrote the following blog about his book.
Hubert Verneret in 2017.
I started to write this diary in 1938; I was13 years old. I was living at the time in a small town in the Nivernais on the banks of the Loire, under the hardship of the German occupation. As most able-bodied men were prisoners in Germany, teenagers were called upon to help the population, and even remove the dead and the wounded after Allied bombings. It was a difficult time, full of constraints and deprivation.
But the most important part of my diary is about the year 1944 and especially my enrolment in a maquis lost in the mountainous forests of Morvan, in the heart of Burgundy.
In the early days of August 1944, my friend Michel had obtained information about a maquis where there were even, he said, English officers.
We had been trying since the start of the school holidays to join the Resistance, because the Allied landing in Normandy led us to believe that there would be intense fighting for the liberation of the France. So, why not join in?
On August 8th, as soon as the curfew was lifted, we left Nevers and cycled in the direction of Autun. A resistance fighter got us enrolled at once, on August 11th.
Two days after our arrival, I was already entrusted with my first mission: because I did not look anything like a maquisard and my clothes were still spotless, I had to go by bicycle to a post office and deliver an important letter to the postmistress who was a resistant. And that was my first frightening experience.
Three days later we were armed, because during the night an important airdrop of weapons and ammunition had taken place. Then began the training : we had to fire as few bullets as possible, and throw rocks instead of Mills grenades in order to save ammunition. A few days later, we knew how to take apart and reassemble our weapons blindfolded. And then we waited!
In our group of maquisards, one was 18 years old and most of the others were19. Full of the enthusiasm of youth, we all wanted to be involved in the fighting as soon as possible. And it could have happened, just a few days later. To treat our wounded, we used an old bus and a small truck to steal equipment from a German warehouse. On the way there, we could easily have come face to face with one of the numerous enemy convoys on their way back to Dijon. We were very lucky, because I’m sure that if there had been fighting, none of us would have returned alive to the camp.
Paul Sarrette, alias Captain Louis, Commander of the maquis, in his field command post. He was 23 years old when killed.
Since the landing of General de Lattre de Tassigny’s troops in Provence on August 15th, the Germans, who were afraid of being cut off in the West of France, retreated eastwards by taking the direction of South Morvan. Yet on this road, there were the 1900 men belonging to the Louis maquis.
So began the ambushes all along the paths through the woods.
It is interesting to note that the British S.O.E had seen far ahead and had parachuted in a number of officers at the end of 1943. Their mission was to form a maquis with the help of the Resistance fighters who had been active in the area since 1941, and were derailing trains full of German soldiers on leave, or destroying their equipment.
The battle of Autun began on the 8th September, and lasted for several days, a large confrontation between the 1st German army and the 1st Free French division. Also involved were Patton’s American advance guard and General Leclerc’s troops coming from Normandy. The “Louis” maquis fought on the access road to Autun. As for me and my group, we were in the branches of an old oak which had been felled across a side road in case the Germans wanted to use it; in the event, they did not.
The battle was won, but there were countless dead and more than 16,000 German prisoners. Within a few months, the maquis suffered 67 dead, including Captain “Louis”, dead at 23, while many were injured. As we were under cover in the woods when we attacked German convoys going past on the road, they had many more casualties than we did.
When I reread this diary now, I am struck in my story of the Louis maquis by my many comments following each of our interventions. I recognise the student who has just left his philosophy lesson and who wants to analyse and find a moral in everything.
If I had written my memories of war thirty or forty years later, it would have been a very different book and above all, I could not have intertwined History and emotion.
To find out more about Hubert Verneret’s wartime experiences, click on the book cover.
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