Sergeant AUPOIL Roger of the 2nd compagny of the 4th Battalion of Charollais integrated into the 1st French Army of de LATTRE de TASSIGNY.
Sergeant AUPOIL Roger fell by shell burst on December 7, 1944 on hill 475, he was 21 years old.
Photo taken from Pouilly/Fuissé with, behind, the rock of Solutré and the rock of Vergisson.
Photo certainly taken after the passage and parade of the 1st Army in Mâcon.
AUPOIL Roger joined the resistance to the Beaubery maquis (Gaullist maquis): the "first" maquis in Saône-et-Loire organized and composed by executives (non-commissioned officers and officers) of the 5th Regiment of the Mâcon Dragoon after its dissolution in November 1942 (armistice army).
This maquis will be taken seriously after a raid (following a denunciation) by 450 Germans garrisoned in Mâcon who attacked on November 11, 1943 in the woods of Combrenod after a provocation (laying of a wreath on a war memorial from Montmelard). 80 resistance fighters faced them, alerted by the arrival of German troops in the woods. From the first very harsh exchanges, 42 Germans were put out of action, including 27 killed (figures to be verified, particularly for the number of deaths). Seeing the hardness of the task, the German officer retreated, taking with him 3 prisoners (4 were killed during the fighting) from the maquis, set fire to a farm and took civilians hostage. The Wehrmacht colonel from Mâcon said that he “thought he found bandits and that they found soldiers”.
Later, a German encirclement dealt a heavy blow to the resistance fighters. 14 will be prisoners but there are still 150 men capable of combat.
The 19 prisoners taken in the surrounding area were interned in Montluc prison and shot on the Doua shooting range (Lyon).
The survivors will disperse with the help of other maquis, helped by the departmental command, and the group will grow.
In the spring of 1944, they joined the French Interior Forces (FFI) and trained 100 new fighters under military principles.
The Charollais Battalion was created with 700 fighting forces and participated in local armed missions until the liberation of Cluny (1st free town in the department, 1 month before the department! Liberated only thanks to local forces despite German columns of 2,000 men: the city embodies resistance in Saône-et-Loire).
"The first fifteen days of French campaign is happening in desperate pursuit of the ennemi but also in one step triumphant through Burgundy and Franche-Comté".
On July 14, 1944, the region witnessed the largest parachute drop it had ever experienced. 36 bombers escorted by fighters dropped 120 tonnes of material attached to 430 parachutes in blue-white-red colors on Cormatin.
The airdrop is visible from Mâcon, 30 kilometers away!
After this parachute drop, the battalion left to liberate Cluny, Roanne, came to harass the Germans along the bank of the Saône, liberated Villefranche where it operated the junction with the 1st Army (more precisely the 1st Armored Division: 1st DB) and was incorporated into the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (in November).
The battalion, now motorized thanks to war prizes, moved back towards Mâcon then Sennecé-le-Grand where the maquisards and the S.A.S. suffered terrifying losses.
The battalion moves up the country and arrives in Alsace where things get tough.
They relieved the Battalion of Cluny and had to seize hill 475 between Bourbach-le-Bas and Roderen the same day (December 7).
Guided by section leaders GAUTEY, DANARD and FILIERES (of which Lieutenant LEBOITEUX will take over his elements to continue the attack after Aspirant FILIERES is seriously injured by a grenade launcher shot) all coordinated by the legendary Commander ZIEGEL (said Claude).
The attack supported by tanks (from the 3rd Regiment of Moroccan Spahis: 3rd RSM) encountered minefields and German crossfire on the summit.
"Sudden, unexpected, the explosions of the mines under the feet of comrades throw them into the middle of a thick column of black smoke.
Despite this and suffering numerous losses, the 2nd company of the 4th Battalion of Charollais reached its objective.
The losses meant that the plan had to be modified and the battalion relief was planned for the following morning, followed by the attack and the capture of Roderen.
But during the night the Germans counterattack with mortars followed by the infantry assault.
The men, tested and under negative temperatures, were forced to withdraw urgently. The two officers who had come to scout (from ANTEROCHES and RIMMEL) guided the retreat when they suddenly jumped on a mine.
It was that night, the night of December 7 to 8, in a "nightmare landscape, trees torn apart by shells, the carcasses of burned tanks from which icy rain fell incessantly. Everyone spent the night in the personal holes with water up to his knees" that Sergeant AUPOIL, during the retreat, was struck by a shrapnel. "At night, we listened to our companions, who, having jumped on mines following the counterattack, were screaming in pain. In the morning, 20% of us could no longer walk, disabled by frozen feet." : will be the summary of this night.
The body of Sergeant AUPOIL could only be recovered later. He will be temporarily buried in Masevaux before his body is finally transferred to where it all began, Saint-Léger-sous-la-Bussière.
Today his name appears on a plaque commemorating the battles on hill 475 on the road to Roderen but also on the very large resistance memorial made and erected by the former members of the Beaubery maquis overlooking the Charollais valleys.
This is how the story of Roger AUPOIL ends, FFI sergeant in the "1st of all FFI battalions, which became a regular unit of the Army" to whom General de Lattre de Tassigny gave a laudatory speech at Beaubery June 8, 1947 :
“When History carefully takes stock of the feats of arms accomplished throughout France by our resistance fighters, it will place those of the Charollais Region among the first and among the best.
To organize their action, the patriots did not wait to be aroused by the great general enthusiasm which shook our entire country, exactly three years ago, with the announcement of the Allied landing on the coasts of Normandy. It was the day after the occupation of the South Zone that the best of them began to carry out clandestine action which, despite the dangers and mourning, continued to grow until the time of Liberation and Victory.
But it was not enough for these resistance fighters to know their region was freed from enemy yoke. The liberation that they had dreamed of during the long and murderous wait was not only the liberation of their villages and towns. The Charollais chased away the German. The Charollais Battalion will pursue him.
He made contact with elements of the 1st French Army and asked to be attached to it. His men, alongside the 1st Armored Division, then in the ranks of the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division, competed fiercely until one day, giving new life to the 10th Infantry of the 14th Division of 1940. They go to Germany itself, beyond the Rhine and the Danube, to avenge their formerly submerged Elders after having expended incomparable heroism and inscribed in glory the name of RETHEL.
By browsing the pages of this story, everyone will be able to draw from the memory of the struggles which earned us Victory, the examples necessary for it to remain alive and fruitful. »
Signed: Jean de LATTRE
France
1e armée française ffi
between the 1944-09-03 and the 1944-12-07,world war two