1944–1945 The Frenchmen at StrečnoFrancúzi pri Strečne

Among the defenders was a unit of Frenchmen. Their commander, Captain Georges Barazer de Lannurien, had been taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940 and escaped in the summer of 1942 across the border at Čadca into Slovakia; other French prisoners and forced labourers did the same, and in the summer of 1944 they were formed into a French detachment of the 1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade in the Turiec, around Sklabiňa. At Strečno they held positions on the slopes above the road and were badly cut up. The detachment fought on afterwards near Vrútky and in the mountains; by December 1944 about ten men were left, and they reached Soviet lines in January 1945.Medzi obrancami bol aj oddiel Francúzov. Ich veliteľ, kapitán Georges Barazer de Lannurien, padol roku 1940 do nemeckého zajatia a v lete 1942 ušiel cez Čadcu na Slovensko; rovnako sem prešli ďalší francúzski zajatci a nútene nasadení robotníci a v lete 1944 z nich v Turci, v okolí Sklabine, sformovali francúzsky oddiel 1. československej partizánskej brigády. Pri Strečne držali postavenia na svahoch nad cestou a utrpeli ťažké straty. Oddiel bojoval ďalej pri Vrútkach a v horách; v decembri 1944 z neho zostalo asi desať mužov a v januári 1945 sa spojili so sovietskym vojskom.