Alpine Front, June 1940.
Soon, some French soldiers
will face 300,000 Italians.
In some sectors, they will fight one against eight.
Everywhere in France, it is the sad spectacle of defeat.
The government fled to Bordeaux on June 14.
On the same day, the Germans invaded Paris.
The roads are overflowing with refugees and fleeing troops.
The rout spreads like a contagious disease.
Mussolini is sure of his victory.
Why should the French fight, if all is lost?
Why should they die, when many surrender to the Germans?
The Duce's pretensions are limitless.
However, the dictator is seriously mistaken.
Although France is falling apart,
General Olry and his men, in the Alps, will remain upright.
They will continue the fight and will do better than resist.
During ten days of battle, the Italians will lose more than 6,000 men
without managing to seize an inch of French territory.
Almost everywhere, French troops will push them back.
Despite the attacks
and the pressure of the German Panzers surrounding them,
the army of the Alps will win a resounding victory.
Journalist and historian, I wanted to know how these men had triumphed
at a time when everything was collapsing around them.
I collected testimonies.
- I met elders who, from their position, defended their home.
It is obvious that they wanted to fight and win.
I collected some clues.
Are these bullet holes? - They really went after them,
and they didn't manage to get back.
My quest for remains has taken me very high.
It’s a bit like the intoxication of the Peaks.
Living history enthusiasts recreated the conditions of the fighting for me.
I also followed the heirs of the Alpine troops of 1940,
exceptional fighters.
More than warriors, mountain people.
They led me to their land,
an environment as sublime as it is austere,
where every error of judgment is paid for in cash.
At the very scene of the battle,
I tried to decipher the reasons for a victory, too quickly forgotten.
The declaration of war
was notified to the ambassadors of Great Britain and France.
June 10, 1940.
Italy declares war on France and England.
To his generals, the Duce said:
"I need thousands of dead to sit at the table of peace."
Murderous cynicism.
The Duce has an idea in mind: to occupy France, from the Alps to the Rhone,
seize Nice and Marseille to make them Italian ports.
His appetite seems insatiable, his ambitions excessive.
It must be said that for a month, the troops of his ally Adolf Hitler
prance across the French plains.
In mid-May, the Germans launched their offensive on the Netherlands,
Belgium and Luxembourg.
This is the Blitzkrieg,
lightning war, based on shock power and speed,
thanks to the perfect coordination between the armored vehicles and the aviation.
Despite the courage and sacrifice of the French soldiers,
the general staff remained locked up
in designs inherited from the Great War of 1914-1918.
But the new trench warfare did not take place.
On May 11, in just two days,
German troops are on the French border.
After the Dutch and Belgian defeats,
part of the Franco-British troops embarked at Dunkirk,
which falls on June 4.
On June 7, the French front was broken through on the Somme.
The Germans are on the Seine on June 9, on the Aisne on June 10.
They crossed the Rhine on June 13, reaching Dijon and Orléans on June 17.
Cherbourg and Brest were reached on June 19.
At this date, the Alpine defense line
is still intact.
As soon as Mussolini declared war on June 10 at midnight,
the French decided to blow up the bridges
located on the path of the Italian invaders.
Fifty-three tons of explosives made it impossible
all motorized and armored attacks of the enemy.
Asked to evacuate their village,
many civilians did not have time to overcome the obstacles.
The Army of the Alps, commanded by General Olry,
awaits the attack of the Italian troops.
They're going to have a lot to do.
It will be necessary to fight in appalling climatic conditions.
It's raining, it's snowing above 2,000 m.
Some days we will record temperatures of minus 15 degrees.
Eric Challier is the president of the association "Storm over the Alps",
the only group faithfully recreating the Alpine troops of yesteryear.
Eric, how many men does General Olry have?
The Army of the Alps, in June 1940, numbered approximately 185,000 men,
including 85,000 men on the front line.
Come on, bag on your back!
Here we go !
How are these men distributed on the ground?
The high mountains belong to the ski scouts,
there were 96 of them in June 1940.
They hold the high ground and are the lookouts for the units downstream,
namely the fortress troops and the artillery.
These troops, this artillery are essential?
Does it hold the Alpine locks?
Yes, and it is she who will contribute greatly
to block the Italians in June 40.
Their motto, like all fortress troops, was "We shall not pass."
What is the area of action of the French forces?
The Alps chain.
It extends from Haute-Savoie to Menton, on the shores of the Mediterranean.
This represents approximately 400 km long and 150 km deep.
Is this a battle that will take place on the Alpine massif?
It will mainly take place in mountainous areas.
The Alpine front is divided into two zones.
One in the north of the Ubaye valley has only a few passes passable in summer:
Little Saint Bernard, in the Aosta Valley,
Mont-Cenis and Montgenèvre leading to Turin, Col de l’Arche.
To the south, the Alpine massif is more permeable
and gradually descends towards Nice.
The Col de Tende ends, on the Italian side, at Cuneo.
The French system is divided into three fortified sectors
in the Alpes-Maritimes, Dauphiné and Savoie.
This is the Maginot Line of the Alps.
From the 1930s, faced with the rise of dangers in Europe,
The French decided to fortify
part of their borders in the north, the east and the Alps.
This line of bunkers bears the name of its initiator, Maginot.
In the Alps, fortresses were therefore built
during the fine days, from fortifications dating from the 19th century
or on strategic locations at very high altitude.
The goal is to cut the enemy's lines of penetration.
In Haute Maurienne,
the Turra fort overlooks the Mont-Cenis basin.
Laurent Demouzon, passionate about Alpine troops, fortifications
and the Battle of the Alps, author of works on these subjects,
decided to take me up there.
We are at an altitude of 2,482 m.
Here we are at the Turra fort.
It's an old fort.
Yes, it is a fort from the end of the 19th century.
He was then integrated into the Maginot line of defense?
Yes, when we built the Maginot Line, we used these forts.
They will come to equip some less strategic passages
than the big works, but we will keep them.
What is this building? - It's the troop barracks.
Built at the time?
1901-1903, it says on it.
How many years to build it? - Five years.
What is it? - The galleries
giving access to the cliff casemates.
They dug the mountain. - We dug it.
Pickaxes, picks, dynamite.
A subway.
Here, as with many other Alpine fortifications,
the French worked hard to set up protected firing positions,
the casemates, covering the Italian border.
Here they literally crossed the mountain from one side to the other,
excavating the rock, 30 m underground,
up to the cliff overlooking the invasion routes.
Could the artillery pieces enter? - Yes, we brought them into the casemates.
Besides, in 40, one will remain there permanently
and the other will be placed in various places, will be taken out, brought in, etc.
They move them. - They move them.
In fact, we know well the Maginot Line of the northeast,
but we don't know that there is a real Maginot line
which was built here.
Tell me more.
This line is part of the general Maginot program.
The first work built is Rimplas,
in the Alpes-Maritimes in 1931, before the north-east.
This line is as important as the one in the northeast.
So, there is a Maginot Line across the entire Alps, over 400 km…
From Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean.
On Mont Blanc, no, but from the first valleys, yes.
It goes as far as Corsica and Tunisia with the Mareth line.
Only, in the middle of June 1940,
the other Maginot line, that of the north and east of France
was taken from behind.
Trapped, the French units fought well.
The Germans struck hard.
They bombed, dismantled the fortifications, dented the turrets,
pierced the armor, chased away the soldiers with grenades and flamethrowers.
They hunted them down like rats,
forcing the crews to surrender before they suffocate.
If only the work of La Ferté, in the Ardennes, was destroyed,
in the popular mind,
the name Maginot still evokes a cruel hoax.
This reinforced concrete wall did not stop the Germans,
because they struck elsewhere,
by going around the obstacle to reduce it later.
But, in the Alps, the location of the Maginot works has been well studied.
There was a real installation process,
that is to say, we do not put at random, these works and these forts?
No, we will have to block the main routes of penetration.
Alsace-Lorraine is rather flat,
but here you have to go through passes and valleys.
So, we will first strengthen these points,
then place yourself on the peaks, where the enemy has little chance of passing.
So, is there a real way to organize defense lines in the mountains?
We will spread the defense with outposts on the border,
with infantry, with machine guns,
and behind, we have the artillery
who will be able to shoot to protect others.
We even have a third line of books just in case.
It's really a layered millefeuille.
Each work supported another.
If one of the bunkers was overwhelmed by enemy infantry
the guns of the other works fired directly at him.
This is called "delousing".
The artillery fire crossed from one position to another
creating deadly zones for the enemy.
The large works covered the smaller ones with their cannons.
For their part,
the Italians had, as early as 1937, begun the construction of an Alpine rampart,
the Vallo Alpino, whose jewel was the Fort du Chaberton,
built in 1901, at an altitude of over 3,100 m.
Reputed to be impregnable and untouchable by French artillery,
it was armed with eight 149 mm gun turrets
who threatened the town of Briançon.
This Battle of the Alps
also announced itself as a fabulous artillery duel.
Since the declaration of war on June 10,
Italian forces await the order to attack the Alps.
Alpine troops are at the forefront of the attack:
These are the Alpini, wearing their felt hats
with jackdaw or eagle feathers.
But even among them, there is a reluctance to attack former brothers in arms
of the First World War.
Yet Mussolini is sure of the strength of his army,
but is he really right?
Passionate historian,
Jean-Baptiste is the president of the Plotone Avanti association,
which faithfully recreates the Italian mountain troops.
Jean-Baptiste, how many Italians are there on the eve of the battle?
They have a hundred thousand men, ready to fight.
Opposite, there are fewer French people.
Moreover, the Italians have an aviation that is still intact,
unlike that of the French.
The numerical superiority is on the Italian side
and France will have to fight with fewer men.
These Italians are good soldiers?
Yes, there is a black legend around the cowardly, cowardly Italian soldier.
Despite defeats like in Doha, there were good units
who have achieved exploits in Italian history.
Unfortunately, the equipment does not always follow
and their command is not necessarily the best in Europe,
with some very sclerotic leaders.
All this will play tricks on them during the war.
Strategically, is Italy ready to attack?
No, the military leaders told Mussolini that they were not ready.
Their industry is not yet powerful enough,
the material is lacking, and they choose, in 1939,
not to go to war, by declaring non-belligerence.
Finally, they took advantage of the French defeat in the northeast,
of the passage of the Germans through Belgium, to enter the war in June 1940.
However, this choice will prove to be very serious for Italy.
Mussolini hopes that the German advance
will allow him to conquer territories without really fighting,
and he is not wrong.
By mid-June, France was drained of blood.
June 17 at noon,
Marshal Pétain announces on the radio that he is donating himself to France.
Gloomy investiture.
In these painful hours,
I think of the unfortunate refugees
who, in extreme destitution,
crisscross our roads.
I express my compassion and concern to them.
It is with a heavy heart that I tell you today,
that the fight must stop.
I addressed the adversary this night
to ask him if he is ready to search with me,
between soldiers,
after the fight and in honor,
the means to put an end to hostilities.
If in the north, the spirit of resistance seems broken,
the army of the Alps is far from having said its last word.
For a neutralization shot.
Here, the Alpine people are on their native land.
They defend their family.
Pose 50 degrees,
as soon as ready, first shell, fire!
Ready! - Send!
On June 18, Mussolini is in Munich.
In the streets, the Germans are hysterical.
For them, the end of the war is near since Pétain's request for an armistice.
The Duce, himself, comes to finish off the leftovers.
He claims the Alps as far as the Rhone,
Savoy, Nice, Corsica, Tunis and Djibouti.
But Hitler wants to end the campaign in the West.
He refuses to let France continue the fight alongside England.
If Mussolini wants territories,
his troops will have to conquer them by force of arms.
Returned to Rome on June 19,
the Duce orders the general offensive for June 21.
The plan is simple, dictated by the relief of the Alps.
Three main directions of attack are planned.
Operation B, little Saint Bernard, to go up the Isère valley
to join the Germans who are advancing towards Chambéry.
Operation M, Larche pass,
to follow the valleys of Ubaye and Durance.
Operation R, Riviera,
participating in operation M,
advancing towards Nice and following the Mediterranean coast.
Final objective of operations M and R: Marseille.
How the Italian generals who fought in the Dolomites
against experts in mountain combat,
welcome the offensive order of the Duce?
They hesitate, because despite their experience, they know that the French are prepared,
that they have good soldiers, and will not let themselves be done.
Then landing in Provence is difficult,
the French navy is here.
They don't really like the idea of dying in the Alps.
In addition, for the Alpini who live there,
they are told to attack cousins, so to speak.
Yes, it is a real heartbreak, families remain connected
despite the border established in the 19th century.
We also sent a lot of Sicilians to counter this.
Some writers like Malaparte write this very well,
they feel like they are attacking their allies from the previous war.
There is still an offensive plan that has been drawn up?
Yes, the Italians draw up plans according to the hypotheses,
but see the French very busy with the Germans
who pierced them in June 1940
and think they can hit hard with a lot of force,
and defeat the French with a fairly brutal action, but effective according to them.
Although poorly prepared,
the Italian troops are relatively fresh.
The French, them
have been on alert for ten days.
They are more tested, especially since the weather is terrible.
The Italian general staff is preparing to send them light armored vehicles,
like the Ansaldo Fiat L3.
June 21 begins with the aerial bombardment
from the old Fort of the Ruined Redoubt
which dominates at an altitude of 2,460 m,
the Little Saint-Bernard Pass.
The Italian troops will attempt a forced passage.
It's a bad move for them.
The French take the small columns to task.
Located lower, but well informed,
the French artillery is having a field day.
Shots block the way
and when the Italians try to overflow at all costs,
the observers spot them and rain down a hail of shells on them.
The number will however work in favor of the attackers.
The Italians are sending masses of men to force their way through.
Soon, the Fort will be completely surrounded.
The men of the garrison will find themselves cut off from the world.
One of them testified
from his trying hours to his daughter-in-law, a heritage guide.
Gisèle, your father-in-law, François Guède, was here, at the Fort of the Ruined Redoubt,
and you were lucky to accompany him.
What did he tell you about this battle, about his life here?
It was first of all a very strong personal experience,
because it is a beautiful mission to defend one's country,
but also a great collective human experience,
because they were pretty seasoned mountaineers,
very courageous, voluntary and united.
They were also very united, because they experienced great fears.
At one point they were surrounded, and had, as he said,
fear in the stomach, the fear of being attacked from everywhere,
then the fear of no longer being supplied.
Then they wondered a lot about the fate of their friends
defending the border around, because they had no news.
In fact, the fort was isolated. - Exactly.
Completely isolated.
So the Italians were not far away and had completely surrounded the fort.
Yes, they arrived on foot, tumbling down the scree
from Mont Valaisan which is opposite,
and above all, they felt like there were thousands of them.
So they were really, really scared.
They really thought about their death when they saw
the number of people arriving.
The fort itself was under fire from the Italians?
Yes, because they arrived at the foot of the enclosure.
Either way, the main access had to be blown up.
This was the main entrance to the fort, on the Italian side.
So, we still have very marked bullet impacts.
Look. - Incredible!
Are all these bullet holes? - Yes, they went after them.
Yes, it's riddled. - They didn't manage to get in.
Despite that? - Yes.
In other sectors, the French must withdraw
in the face of the Italian offensive.
Yet they don't give up
and will even achieve a real feat.
June 21,
the French gunners add a trophy to their list of achievements,
the jewel of the Italian fortification line, the battleship of the Cimes,
the Italian fort of Chaberton.
To get there, I had to climb into a gyroplane
at an altitude of over 3,000 m
and find the fort, hidden in a maze of mountains.
A real adventure.
Wow!
I have my eyes full of it.
It’s a bit like the intoxication of the Peaks.
The mountains opposite, are about 3,000 ?
They are at 3,000, yes, 2,800, 2,900.
In search of Chaberton.
Yes.
So we also fly to the Italian border?
Yes. - After almost an hour of flight,
my pilot, William Raffin,
achieves the feat of leading us directly to the objective.
The fort is there, camouflaged at the top of Mont Chaberton.
The sight of this gigantic building planted at an altitude of 3,185 m is incredible.
We see the eight turrets.
Wow, wow, wow!
Awesome !
Fantastic !
So this is the fort that became French at the end of the Second World War.
To build it, at the beginning of the 20th century,
The mountain had to be leveled.
A titanic work.
Barely 14 km from Briançon, it could bomb the station.
Since the beginning of the battle, he has attacked French works
and some field batteries, without much result,
but the threat is there.
The Italians think that the fort is unreachable
by French artillery.
They are wrong.
The French, in great secrecy,
installed, out of their sight, two batteries of artillery
which has already proven itself during the previous War,
the 280 mm howitzer, Schneider.
On the day of June 21,
Lieutenant Miguet, head of an observation post,
gives the order to open fire.
After several attempts, at 5:15 p.m., a shot on target
puts turret number 1 out of service.
Within half an hour, turrets 3, 4 and 5 were hit.
The Italians do not understand where the blows that hit them come from.
They retaliate into the void.
At eight o'clock on June 21, 1940,
the Italians deplore the loss of six turrets,
nine men were killed, about fifty were injured.
The battleship of the Cimes is definitively neutralized.
Back from Chaberton,
I look at this majestic chain of the Alps.
The peaks remain snow-capped in mid-July.
In June 1940, it was snowing at an altitude of 2,000 m.
It's hard to believe that men fought under these conditions.
Yet this is what the army of the Alps did, and in particular the SES,
the Ski Scout Sections.
They constitute shock elements,
the spearhead of the Alpine units.
Each Alpine infantry battalion
had his SES, commanded by a young sports leader,
mountain mad, trained in a school created in 1932,
the Chamonix High Mountain Military School.
Its missions are mountain training for Alpine staff,
experimentation and development of technical materials, equipment,
transmission and armament.
The work carried out in the field results in the writing of manuals
including that of mountain and military mountaineering, in the 1930s:
basic knowledge of the characteristics of the mountain environment,
means of transport in winter, healthy living at altitude,
everything was there, with boards
allowing mountaineers to perfect their theoretical training.
The mountain attracted its first followers.
It was becoming a sport.
Today, the equipment of the mountain troops and the Alpine hunters
is very technical,
but what was the equipment used by the ski scouts
around 1940?
At the time, the equipment was more rudimentary than today,
like this climbing hammer,
these pitons, carabiners, ice axes,
but they existed, because mountain sports before the war
have already made it possible to create technical materials.
The army then used this civilian equipment,
because she didn't have any.
They bought in sports stores.
This means that the mountain was already an elite sport.
Yes, they were already accomplished mountaineers who did that.
Among them, we find a lot of staff in the SES.
The SES were great athletes.
When recruiting, we preferred people
who practiced mountaineering in civilian life.
How do you fight in the mountains?
To find out, I went to see
heirs of the Alpins of 1940.
For these elite soldiers, the mountain is a playground,
a partner that you have to know well, coax, confront sometimes.
The seventh battalion of Grenoble Alpine hunters
invited me to a typical operation, led by a section.
They are on the left, they are on the right, in line, last, last.
If the technical and logistical means have been modernized,
the environment is the same.
The mountain, with its passes to take, its steep slopes to climb quickly,
in short, its constraints.
A lieutenant commands the mission.
Mission of groups 12:
recognize the track towards the pass.
Until then, my lieutenant, we have done VAB, we have done road,
we made procedures which are soldiers' procedures,
of normal infantrymen.
What makes a fundamental difference
between a biffin, as they say for the infantry,
and an alpine hunter?
If we take this example of collar recognition,
the average infantryman, for example, the section leader,
during a mission,
will see the wooded areas nearby.
He will put a support on the edges, and will recognize the crossroads.
I will study the area on my map,
and I will see peaks around this pass.
I will decide first of all to take this high point.
We come back to the fairly well-known and perhaps simplistic principle
who holds the highs, holds the lows,
so the goal of the fight will be to arrive as quickly as possible on the heights.
Holding the highs,
we have an advantage over the enemy who could visit us.
Doesn’t that ultimately make the Alpine hunter a soldier apart?
Is there the constraint of the mountain?
Yes, it is separate, that is to say it must be more rustic
or very rustic.
The goal is to be comfortable, physically and morally,
to concentrate in combat.
What differentiates us from the fights of 40,
This is our equipment.
Otherwise, we have the same practice of the mountain,
to make it our ally and use it to our advantage.
It is in the face of these experienced French people,
who tamed the mountain,
that the Italians find themselves crossing the border.
The masses of men assaulting the Alps
do not frighten these French people ready to repel the attacker.
In the Tarentaise, Lieutenant Bulle achieves a feat
which is a highlight of the Battle of the Alps.
After rappelling down rocks for 20 m,
he goes on a flat area and sprays with a machine gun
the enemy reconnaissance group,
while his deputy uses a rifle grenade.
The enemy does not understand what is happening, he falls back 800 m.
To repel the French,
the Italian general staff counts on its aviation.
Only, the Duce's generals will soon see
that they do not control the sky.
Fog hinders most bombings.
French aviation carries out interception missions
thanks to a fast and responsive plane, the Dewoitine D520.
Since the beginning of June,
French pilots have achieved great things.
This is the case of Warrant Officer Le Gloan.
While his plane is not ready, he jumps into another one,
without going to get his parachute.
He takes off, with two teammates,
but finds himself alone.
When he lands again, after half an hour of fighting,
he shot down five enemy planes,
a feat not seen since the First World War.
Italian planes will be satisfied
of a few missions of little importance.
The Italians crossed the border as early as June 21,
but they only penetrated a few kilometers.
In Tarentaise, the fort of the Ruined Redoubt is surrounded.
In Briançonnet, they gain little ground,
despite the loss of the advanced post of Chenaillet.
The same in Queyras and Ubaye,
where the outposts are in contact with an enemy who is making little progress.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, the Italians are far from Nice.
Under the cannon fire of the resistance line,
They struggle to enter Menton.
Behind them, the works of Coletta, Collet du Pilon
and the Saint-Louis bridge still stand like thorns planted in their backs.
How could the French hold out, locked in these fortifications?
The Saint-Gobain building, in the middle Maurienne,
has been restored by an association of enthusiasts.
Laurent Demouzon agreed to show me around.
Here, Laurent, we are at the Saint-Gobain works.
Can we say that this is a typical work of the Maginot Line of the Alps?
Yes, characteristic of this Alpine Maginot.
What type of work is it?
It is a mixed work, artillery and infantry,
one to shoot at the incoming enemy, the other for close defense.
When was it built?
From 1933 until 38 for the finishes.
How many men were there?
150: artillery, engineers, infantry.
Will you show me around? - Let's go.
We are almost in the Middle Ages.
Quite massive, the drawbridge. - Quite imposing, yes.
There, are those moats?
It's a diamond gap.
This is to prevent the slots from getting close
and absorb concrete blocks that would come loose,
if enemy fire hits the facade.
To avoid obstructing the machine guns? - Totally.
How many meters of gallery? - Three hundred and fifty.
It's still a beautiful work.
How did people live in such a confined space?
Doing three shifts:
1/3 at combat positions,
1/3 to manage the work and 1/3 at rest.
It's like being on a boat.
We call it a work crew, a sailor's term.
They lived as if they were on board.
We have all the comforts, electricity, heating,
running water, showers, toilets.
We can live independently for three months.
This corridor is really very impressive.
The corridor is the spine,
after that, it spreads out.
Everything is organized there. - It's not a labyrinth.
We always come back to the central corridor.
When the air was stale because of the shots…
how did they do it?
How many meters underground are we? - We are from 10 to 50 m.
The air is not stale, because we are operating at overpressure.
We pump air out, we spit it out there,
so the fumes cannot get inside.
Men breathe well.
In case of smoke, there is the gas mask, but that is in case of indoor combat.
This is the engine room with three engines.
Did it work all the time?
In the event of a power outage, if you need to be independent,
the engines are running with a hell of a racket.
It's like being in a submarine.
Or a destroyer with the combat blocks as the ship's turrets.
What kind of weapons are there here?
For artillery, mortars of the work.
For the infantry, machine gunners in close defense.
It is a work that is powerfully armed.
This is a beautiful baby.
He weighs his weight - It's worth it.
These are mortars? - Two mortars from the work.
Is that 81mm? - Eighty-one mm fortress.
I find it hard to understand that in a completely confined environment,
There are two 81mm mortars.
How the servants, without any visibility to the outside,
could be effective?
At the forefront, at the summits,
we have observers with binoculars or binoculars,
who locate enemy positions.
Using coordinates, they send them to the PC.
The PC, thanks to this order transmitter, sends the firing coordinates
to the gunners who will shoot at the Italians.
We rectify to the right, to the left, forward, backward.
It's a naval battle with a successful hit.
So the shots were preset?
Did the shooters know where to aim? - Yes, well before the fighting
well before the war, we targeted everything
to shoot at night, in the fog,
on a lost path in the mountains.
The Italians were surprised by these shots? - A big surprise.
Besides, French artillery is perhaps the most precise.
How to communicate between firing blocks in a single structure?
The works communicated with each other, and how?
In a book, we do it by phone,
by order transmitter too.
We also have pipes where we talk in them.
You need a good ear!
Afterwards, between works,
radio, telephone, optical signals, optical slots,
we can make sea signals.
Is it like Morse code? - Yes, with a lamp.
Is this cutting-edge technology for its time?
I think the Maginot Line
concentrates a know-how which is enormous,
which is perhaps the most successful fortification that has ever existed.
Yes, received, I will forward to the lieutenant.
My lieutenant, the enemy is on hill 2,200.
The artillerymen of the Alpes-Maritimes do better than defend themselves.
On the morning of June 22, they repelled an Italian attack
in fog and rain.
Start shooting, immediately!
Let's charge!
An armoured train of the Regia Marina, the Italian Royal Navy,
fires 200 cannon shots on the Cap Martin structure.
Shortly after noon, he came out of the tunnel, but could no longer get into position.
He was hit violently by two salvos of 75mm cannons.
The three 152 mm guns are out of action.
The pride of the Italian army has been hit,
but despite this success, the French have other worries.
On June 22, after tough negotiations in Rethondes,
The France-Germany armistice agreement is finally signed.
It will only be effective for six hours
after the signing of the armistice between France and Italy.
German troops can continue their advance southwards.
General Olry, commander-in-chief of the Alps,
stop just defending the border with Italy.
Behind him, the Panzers advance on Lyon, declared an open city.
The city is offered to the enemy, without a fight.
Once again, everything seems against the Army of the Alps.
The rout on the northern front and the signing of the armistice at Rethondes
we ended up softening up the local authorities who were not asking for so much.
The Alpine army is attacked from two sides,
because the sixteenth Panzer Corps must march
on Grenoble and Chambéry to cut the retreat
French elements attacked by Italian forces.
These armoured and motorised units carried out two lightning campaigns
in Poland and France.
They are young and disciplined men, convinced of their just cause.
They rush from the banks of the Marne without any resistance.
The strategy of their leader, General Erich Hoepner, is effective.
The man is a rider.
Group A must reach Annecy.
Group B aims for Grenoble.
Group C must ensure coverage of the southern flank
operations A and B,
coming to border the Isère, north of Montélimar.
General Olry will have to face the assault of the German troops.
He is totally alone.
The head of the French army, General Weygand, is far away
and preoccupied with other problems.
The Army of the Alps is not part of the concerns of the general staff.
Olry is completely free to make his decisions.
This autonomy will allow him to organize his defense as he sees fit.
To block the Germans, Olry will have a motley assembly
old reservists and young soldiers.
Some are enthusiastic, others more disillusioned.
There is a colonial division which served as a reserve,
sailors from Toulon, tanks, infantrymen withdrawn from the northeast.
The overall cohesion leaves something to be desired.
However, the 30,000 men making up this force
will be tasked with holding on two successive lines of defense,
a line on the Isère, a line on the Durance.
After Lyon was offered by the French,
the Germans, after resistance from Senegalese riflemen at Montluzin,
cross the Rhone.
The French retreat into the department of Isère.
On the evening of June 20, all the bridges were blown up, except at Culhose,
which allows the Reich troops to threaten Chambéry.
Between June 22 and 24, the Army of the Alps resisted everywhere,
in Aix-les-Bains, Chambéry and Voreppe,
where French cannons block access to Grenoble.
Captain Debai served more than 20 years,
within the 93rd mountain artillery regiment,
who was on the front line during the Battle of the Alps in June 40.
He knows all the details of the artillery duels around Voreppe.
We are at the Bec de l'Échaillon, an observation post
which allowed the German advance to be stopped.
At the end of June, my captain, the Germans are coming from the north.
What force does General Olry have to stop the Germans here,
all around Voreppe?
General Olry, who commanded the Alps defense sector,
sought not to thin the border against the Italians.
He gave a mandate to General Cartier
to organize the defense on the Voreppe gorge,
without giving him men,
while they were facing the Italians to block.
He will ask General Cartier to use all means possible
to block the German advance with sappers,
anti-aircraft gunners with their 25-pounder guns,
their machine guns, with pioneers,
riflemen, artillerymen.
The gunners made do with the means at hand.
At the very beginning, we had a battery of two 75mm cannons
and two 65 mountain batteries,
which were installed at the entrance to Voreppe.
He will even go as far as Toulon to look for sailors
and bring them back up with their naval guns.
For the record,
the naval guns were on the boats,
but there were no lookouts or boats there.
They made concrete bases to fix the weapon
on the battle locations,
hoping the concrete dries
before the Germans launched their offensive.
On June 23, the French forces, however disparate,
stop a first German attack.
But the soldiers of the Reich returned to the attack the next day, in force.
They are unaware that at night, the French, by taking risks,
had a battery of an excellent long-range cannon,
the 155 mm High Power Filloux.
All day long,
the observers of the Bec de l'Échaillon will allow the French to shoot on goal.
The Germans are stopped.
They had a beautiful view of the plain below us.
This installation of French artillery here, in Voreppe,
is it a success?
Are the Germans arrested?
It is a total success and a big surprise for the Germans.
Moreover, General Marchand, who commanded the artillery,
had a little word saying
that the French artillery entered the battle like burglars.
It may seem a little surprising as an expression,
but he meant that this heavy artillery
had arrived in total discretion,
without anyone knowing.
The artillery was deployed at night,
in the rain, on fire out.
The defenders of Voreppe were unaware of the arrival of the pieces behind,
so the shells flying over Voreppe towards the Germans surprised them.
So the rear of the Army of the Alps were saved here?
The rears were saved here, in Voreppe.
Beyond that, historians say
that this whole area of Grenoble remained free
made it possible to remove military equipment from the occupier.
This saved many prisoners.
No one was taken prisoner by the Germans.
Then there was a seed of resistance
which appeared, because we realize
that with will, organization, means,
The German was arrested.
On June 23, near Rome, the French plenipotentiaries are received
at 7:30 p.m. to obtain the armistice conditions,
which should come into force on June 24 at midnight.
The Italians are still trying to advance in the Alps.
Across the front, the scenario repeats itself.
The Italians have less than 24 hours to move forward.
They throw their forces into battle,
approach very close to the outpost works
to throw their grenades,
but the machine guns and mortars sweep them away like straws.
On June 24, the attempted attacks by the Italian infantry
follow one another in vain.
The Duce's troops are exhausted.
All along the front line, the French are taking advantage of this.
As soon as possible, they attack their enemies,
harass them, surprise them, dislodge them even in their camp.
Collect the weapons!
In Queyras, the aspirant Gheuri, a quartermaster sergeant
and four Alpine hunters, achieve a feat
during which they took 52 Alpini prisoners,
including a captain and two lieutenants.
Do you want a hat?
Oh, the beautiful Italian hat.
Sat !
What is the state of the Italian troops at dawn on June 24?
They are bruised, because they have struggled in a difficult environment
with extreme weather conditions, even in summer.
There is still snow
and thousands of Italians suffer from frostbite and they stagnate.
The French are defending themselves well, which, in addition, to top it all off,
adds a terrible blow to the morale of the Italians.
Is it on the Monton side, in the south,
where it is a little less mountainous, is the situation the same?
Yes, because there, the French have efficient and precise artillery.
French officers prepared before the war.
They know the Italians' lines of attack and shoot effectively.
This prevents the Italians from really moving forward.
In the Alpes-Maritimes,
the enemy is in contact with the outpost line.
If the Italians are east of Monton,
their reinforcement cannot pass through the national
because the work of the Saint-Louis bridge,
although surrounded for several days, still blocks their passage.
The resistance of the Saint-Louis bridge
sums up the spirit of the French who follow the motto of the fortress battalions:
"We don't get through."
Since the beginning, this outpost equipped with an anti-tank barrier
and a 37 mm cannon, repelled all attacks.
On the evening of June 22, the crew's radio even broke down.
They were cut off from the rest of the world.
Yet, like all their comrades, they continued the fight.
The Italians have only advanced a few kilometers.
Laurent, during the armistice,
Did the Army of the Alps win a great victory?
Yes, she is victorious against the Germans and against the Italians.
How can we explain General Olry’s success?
On the French side, first the Alps which are hard to cross.
Snow and cold hampered the Italians.
Fortified positions established,
a terrain we know, precise artillery
whose firing plans have been identified, plus Alpine or non-Alpine troops,
who fought, who held on.
At the forefront, the SES slowed down the Italians.
This allowed the victory.
There are Italian blunders: no preparation, deficient equipment,
lack of artillery, air support
and a willingness to attack which was limited.
All this makes a French victory. - Conversely, can we say
that the Alpine spirit, the mountain spirit, helped this army of the Alps?
Officers of the Army of the Alps will join the resistance
after the armistice.
We are not better than the others, but the mountain troops
are quite experienced, and recruited locally.
- I met elders who, from their position, defended their home.
It is clear that they wanted to fight and win.
They were victorious and never accepted defeat.
They will not accept either the Italian or the German occupation,
so the majority will join the resistance and continue the war until 1945.
For them, the struggle continues? - It continues.
June 24th at midnight,
the armistice agreements take effect.
The Germans occupy the north of the demarcation.
The Italians who have made little progress
in France, seize the fortification line
and some strategic areas on the border.
The troops of the Army of the Alps must withdraw 50 km from the enemy line.
French soldiers have 10 days to evacuate.
They must retreat to the free zone.
At nine o'clock in the morning, this June 25, 1940,
the garrison of the Saint-Louis bridge finally leaves its fortified stronghold.
The men are dirty, unshaven, exhausted by hours of fierce fighting.
The Italians are stunned,
spontaneously, they stand to attention.
A bewildered officer murmurs: "There were only nine of them."
The Alps are not prisoners.
They join their line with their weapons
after having locked their inviolate works.
At the Ruined Redoubt,
where it all began, the tricolor flag is brought.
The Italian standard now flies over a fort not conquered by arms.
The French detachment marches with its head held high and its teeth clenched.
Their opponents return their honors to them.
Little consolation for stubborn men.
In about ten days of fighting,
the Italians lost 6,000 men, dead, missing, wounded
or prisoners.
The French deplore 37 dead and only 62 wounded.
In the Alps, in this month of June 1940, while France is collapsing everywhere,
that the routed armies fled,
The Alpine troops gave nothing away,
neither land nor honor.
In an agenda dated June 26, 1940,
General Olry writes:
"When hostilities cease,
I thank the troops of the Army of the Alps for their effort.
Everyone gave even more
that his strict mission commanded him.
All held their own against superior forces
whose thrust was limited, foot by foot.
Those who did this have the right to be proud of it."