The Maquis of Meilhan is the best-known Second World War feat of arms in the Gers department. It is also the most tragic.
It was early morning on 7 July 1944, following a heroic and tragic battle by the Meilhan maquis against a numerically superior enemy, some 1,200 Germans. Surrounded on three sides and caught under enemy fire, the leader of the maquis, Dr Raynaud, and Commandant Marcelin succumbed along with the other maquis members, most of whom were massacred.
The Maquis de Meilhan is a place of remembrance, a site and memorial erected in memory of the 67 Maquis, inaugurated in 1949. Since then, every first Sunday in July, the people of Gers have gathered in large numbers to pay their respects at the site.
