Henri Zeller (born 18 March 1896, Besançon, France – died 16 April 1971, Paris, France) was a French Armygeneral and member of the Resistance organization of the French Army during World War II.
Arriving in Algiers in Algeria in the very first days of August 1944 as a liaison officer, Colonel Zeller, by then head of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) in the Alps, presented General Charles de Gaulle with the operational possibilities of the French Resistance in the southeast of France. Inland, FFI forces had eroded German military potential. Informed that Operation Dragoon, the Allied plan for amphibious landings in Provence in Southern France in August 1944, provided for reaching Grenoble in 90 days, Zeller replied "What a mistake! From Brignoles to Grenoble, 48 hours will suffice." Convinced, de Gaulle sent Zeller to Naples, Italy, to make his case with General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, commander of the French First Army and Lieutenant GeneralAlexander Patch, commander of the U.S. Seventh Army, which made up the initial landing force. Zeller declared that throughout the Alps, "the Germans are practically prisoners in their garrisons, from which they only come out in force for their supply or some retaliatory expedition." The two generals took his recommendations into account. In particular, the U.S. Seventh Army, as soon as it landed, rushed towards Grenoble via the Durance valley and the Route Napoléon, and with the support of the Maquis of Drôme and Isère reached it in seven days (and three days after the liberation of Brignoles, 270 kilometres (168 mi) below).[5] These actions allowed the French First Army to ensure the junction with the French 2nd Armored Division — which had landed in Normandy — on 12 September 1944 at Montbard and Nod-sur-Seine.
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