André Eugène Marcel Pourchier (; 1 June 1897 – 1 September 1944)Index des noms commençant par P was a French military officer whose last rank was lieutenant-colonel. In World War II, he was a member of the French Resistance. Captured by German occupying forces, he was killed in Germany.
Biography Pourchier was born in Beuil, Alpes-Maritimes. He was a Chasseurs Alpins soldier and a member of his hometown's winter sports club, which was founded in 1924.L'histoire de Beuil (French). As a Lieutenant, he was the leader of the national military patrol team at the 1928 Winter Olympics (demonstration event), which finished last.
In 1930 he designed the first ski jumping hill in Beuil.Association Montagne et Traditions: Surveiller et protéger la frontière (French). Because of his expertise, he was made the first commander and captain of the newly founded French mountain warfare school École de Haute Montagne (EHM) in Chamonix in 1932. The school was founded for the special training of the ski reconnaissance platoons, which were founded in 1930. During his time at the EHM, he created new techniques of ski warfare, methods of training,Association Montagne et Traditions (French), 2008. and clothing for mountain warfare.Matériel du C.E.F.S. (French).Ian Sumner, Francois Vauvillier, Mike Chappell: The French Army 1939-45 (1), Osprey Publishing, 1998, p. 20. He recruited Pierre Dalloz, an engineer who supported his drawings of detailed alpine maps after 1941.Les Allemands à Villard de Lans (French). During World War II while active with the French Resistance he was captured in Nice by the German Gestapo. He was transferred to the concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof where he was killed.D'une Guerre à l'autre: L’Ecole militaire de haute montagne de Chamonix (French).
In his hometown, his name is listed on a war memorial and a boulevard is named after him: Boulevard Marcel-Pourchier.Beuil: Monument aux Morts
Bibliography Marcel Pourchier, Edouard Frendo: La Technique de l'Alpinisme, Arthaud, 1943. J.-P. Martin: Jusqu’au bout du devoir . Le Lieutenant-Colonel Marcel POURCHIER, in Les Cahiers des Troupes de Montagne, No. 17, June 1999, pp. 30–38. Pierre Dalloz: Vérités sur le drame du Vercors, Paris, 1979, Chap. 3.
References