Chris Pearson

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Chris Pearson | 'The Age of Wood': Fuel and fighting in French Forests, 1940–1944 | Environmental History, 11.4 | The History Cooperative

'the age of wood': FUEL AND FIGHTING IN FRENCH FORESTS, 1940–1944

ABSTRACT

Through a case study focusing on southeastern France, this article traces the history of French forests during World War II. For the Vichy regime the forest was not only a vital source of replacement products in a time of severe shortages, but also a habitat that could symbolize elements of Vichy's reactionary worldview. However, from late 1942 onward, resistance movements began physically and imaginatively to reclaim the forest from Vichy, turning it into a space of revolt and subversion. German and Italian occupation challenged French control of the forest, undermining Vichy's production drive, and turning forests into sites of armed conflict. By arguing that forests were an integral component of France's wartime history, this essay contributes to both the established historiography on Vichy France and the emerging literature on environmental histories of war.

IN JEAN GIONO'S short story, The Man Who Planted Trees, the narrator wanders across a "landscape of unparalleled desolation" in "the ancient region where the Alps extend into Provence." In this arid, sparsely populated region he meets a serene shepherd, Elzéard Bouffer, who has selflessly taken it upon himself to plant thousands of oak and beech trees in the dry soil to save this region from dying because of a "lack of trees." After five years in the army and desiring "to breathe some fresh air," our traveler returns to find that while he was fighting at Verdun in 1915 the good shepherd was sowing "beautiful birch plantations." When war breaks out again in 1939, their remote location saves the shepherd's trees from being turned into fuel and the war passes Bouffer by: "he didn't even know about it ... going peacefully on with his task, ignoring the 1939 war just as he'd ignored the war of 1914."¹	1
In Giono's tale the trees escape the ravages of war, allowing them to exert their healing influence on the region. In reality, however, France's forests did not escape World War II, and between 1940 and 1944 they were overexploited and transformed into sites of combat and political appropriation. Forests, then, were an integral component of France's wartime history. As one forester claimed in 1942, "having seen the age of iron we are today experiencing the age of wood."² This history, however, remains to be written. Environmental historians of France have largely overlooked the impact of World War II on French forests, concentrating instead on the pre- and post-war periods or forest history during the World War I.³ Similarly, the historiography of France's "dark years" has barely begun to consider the environmental history of this period.⁴ With this lacuna in mind, this article represents a starting point for approaching French wartime history from an environmental perspective. Furthermore, it aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on environmental histories of war, which have so far approached the relationship between wood and war through the lens of resource depletion and forestry practices.⁵ Missing from these accounts are localized variations and inconsistencies, as well as the cultural significance of forests during wartime.	2
To redress the balance, this article considers the interconnecting material and cultural history of forests during wartime through a case study of forests in southeastern France, a region comprising Provence and the Southern Alps. This region makes a particularly useful case study for both its ecological and political variety. Ecologically, this area contains a range of forest types, from the beech trees of the prealpine Vercors mountain range to the Mediterranean forests hugging the Provençal coastline. Politically, the region experienced numerous political and military authorities between 1940 and 1944; it formed part of the "Unoccupied" Zone governed by the Vichy regime and was subsequently under both Italian and German occupations.⁶ Moreover, apart from isolated Alpine battles with Italian troops in June 1940, the region was largely free of sustained military combat until the Allied landings of August 1944. As such, the region allows for an analysis of both the indirect and direct ecological ramifications of warfare. Where necessary, however, I draw on examples from outside this region, such as the Tronçais forest in central France.	. . .

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