Gliders Vassieux-en-Vercors

Remains of two gliders DFS 230 and Gotha Go 242, on display near the Nécropole de la Résistance used by the Wehrmacht during airdrops in July 1944 around Vassieux.

First glider landing on July 21, 1944.

On the morning of July 21, 1944, at around 7:30 a.m., twenty-two DFS 230 gliders towed by Dornier Do 17s took off from the Lyon/Bron airfield, each with ten men on board, including the pilot. The flight, which lasts an hour and a half, is completed without any particular problems, and the gliders begin to land very close to the village, some practically next to the houses. The arrival of these soldiers comes as a complete surprise to the resistance fighters, but they quickly pull themselves together and set up mitrailleuses. Several gliders are destroyed during the landing and some crews are killed. The Germans took refuge in the village, where they resisted throughout the day and the following day, as the maquisards mounted a counter-attack; isolated, without supplies, the German troops were to find themselves on the verge of annihilation on several occasions. Because of very poor weather conditions, they were unable to receive air support on July 22, so there was no arrival of reinforcements and no intervention by the squadron specialized in fighting "terrorists".

Second glider landing on July 23, 1944
On July 23, with fine weather once again in the air, twenty DFS 230 gliders and a heavy Gotha Go 242 glider, towed by the same aircraft as on July 21, take off from the Chabeuil airfield with two hundred men and equipment, including a 20 mm gun. Three gliders fail to reach the plateau during this flight on July 23. One broke its towline over Marignac-en-Diois, and two towing aircraft were carried more than 25 kilometers south of the planned route. When they return north towards Vassieux, they'll be caught in the downwash created by the very strong Mistral wind and the surrounding mountains. The cables will break. One of them will have its wing torn off, and it will crash near Montjoux, killing all its occupants. This reinforcement will help break the resistance of the maquisards, especially as ground troops also begin to break through on the plateau that same day. On the 26th, the parachutists burn their gliders before descending into the valley. It wasn't until August 15 that the Germans completely evacuated the plateau.

Source Wikipedia
Contribution and photo credit: Sylvaine Laborde-Castex