‘The Age of Wood’: Fuel and Fighting in French Forests, 1940–1944

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.