Memorial Du Souvenir Espenel

The Espenel Monument is located on the site of the battles of July 1944. It was inaugurated on July 21, 1999 and designed by architect Christian Vaude.

The Ataque du Vercors is commemorated on 21 July 1944. Various plaques bear the names of the resistance fighters of the Pons and Chapoutat companies who fell in battle, as well as the civilian victims of Espenel and Saillans.

Since then, more records have been added. A plaque recalls the circumstances of the arrest of hostages after the sabotage of December 22, 1943. The memory of the three companies active in the Drôme Valley is engraved on a 5th plaque.

The monument commemorates two events.
That of the German repression after the sabotage of the railway line Livron - Veynes at the level of the municipality of Vercheny. During the night of 21/22 December 1943, the runway was sabotaged between Vercheny and Pontaix near Barsac. Five days later, the Germans surrounded the villages and rounded up the men aged 18 to 45. Of the 80 men arrested, 57 were deported. 37 of them will not return from the camps.

The second episode is about the battle for the investment of the Vercors massif in July 1944 during Operation Bettina. The first skirmish took place in Aouste-sur-Sye, near the Pont des Grands Chenaux on 21 July 1944. The German column, which was attacked in the morning at the Grands Chenaux, was attacked again in the afternoon between Saillans and Espelel by the Punch Company. Eleven resistance fighters were killed. The fight only ends at nightfall. About fifty Germans were said to have been killed with the Gammon grenade in the battle. The Germans, who also occupied Blacons at the end of the day, set fire to the village of Espenel and surrounding farms in retaliation. Despite the resistance of the maquisards, the Germans advanced and went up the Drôme valley to Die. Taking the road to the Col de Rousset, they entered the heart of the Vercors and made their crossing with the other troops who had invested the massif. On July 23, 1944, the dispersal order of the resistance command marked the end of the organized resistance of the Vercors. The repression will fall on the massif and its surroundings.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Erik Gorter