While François Huet was attempting to create a conventional army from the maquis, journalist and De Gaulle supporter Yves Farge was organizing the politics of the Vercors resistance. On 3 July 1944 Farge and a committee proclaimed the founding of the Free Republic of Vercors, the first independent territory in France since the beginning of the German occupation in 1940. The Free Republic had its own flag, i.e., the French Republic tricolour featuring the Cross of Lorraine and the V for Vercors and Victory (both used as a signature by General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces), and its coat of arms, the French Alpine Chamois. It was a short-lived republic; it ceased to exist before the end of the month.