Mackintosh, P. St. J. Résistance

The Corps Franc Pommiès. From Bayonne to Berlin

The Corps Franc Pommiès (CFP) was founded on November 17, 1942, by the man who gave it his name, André Pommiès. Operating in southwestern France, it grew into one of the largest and most significant resistance units in the south of the country. Following initial acts of sabotage against rail and road networks, factories, and power plants, the unit carried out a sabotage operation on April 15, 1944, against the Hispano-Suiza plant in Soues (Hautes-Pyrénées department); in doing so, they preempted a planned Allied bombing raid on the facilityand the inevitable collateral damage that would have entailed. This was no mere small-scale underground cell: the CFP mobilized around 12,000 fighters to support the D-Day landings. Through constant attacks on the Gestapo, the fascist *Milice*, and other occupation forces, they turned the area around Toulouse into a dangerous no-man's-land for the Nazis. During the advance toward central France, the CFP joined the newly formed First French Army and fought in the fierce battle for the liberation of Alsace. The unit participated in the crossings of the Rhine, the march on Stuttgart, and the French occupation of Germany, becoming the first French regiment to occupy Berlin. Their story is vividly recounted in this bookthe first English-language work to document their exploits.