French Resistance

     Would you have rebelled against the Germans if they had taken over your country, France did. After the Germans invaded Poland England and France declared war in 1939. The French actually signed the Munich Pact which helped get permission for the Germans to invade Northern Czeckslovakia. But then the Germans betrayed them. The Germans conducted a brilliant campaign against the Low Countries. The Low Countries were countries on low lying land around the delta of the Rhine,Scheldt, and Muese rivers. The Italians invaded France on May the 10. The war didn't last very long. The French were decimated after The Battle of France or Fall of France.

      With these two events France surrendered on June 22, 1940. After the fall of France the country degenerated into two zones. They were an unclaimed zone in the south then a German occupation in the north and west. A man set up a collaborationist government which came to be known as Vichy France in the unclaimed zone. This man still had respect and a good image of the Nazis. His title was Marshall Petain. After this happened Charles de Gaulle who was in London during the war against the Germans stated that the French people should fight the Germans. Many people were still loyal to Germany especially in Vichy France. So many of them were reluctant to uproot from the Germans control.

     But many people joined in the north. The people who were or joined the resistance was called the Maquis when they were based in rural France. People who joined the resistance came from all backgrounds. Many different religions and opinions of government like Roman Catholics, liberals, and even communists joined the resistance. After the attack on Russia "Operation Barbarossa" many communists in France joined the resistance. Even with this and the people joining up the resistance had a rough start. This mainly was because of France's political complexities.

      The resistance movements took orders from the special operations executive. There was the communist group, groups who were loyal to De Gaulle, and people who wanted freedom etc. In the north only Germans were targets. But in the south the Vichy government was as well of a target. The first resistance movements were in the north like the OCM which was the (Organisation Civile et Militaire). By 1940 six underground newspapers were being regularly printed in the north. In May 1941, the first SOE agent was dropped into northern France to help the resistance. What they did was they did things like blow up tracks so that supply and reinforcements would not get to the battle on time. Then the French stole the supplies.

     But the one thing that the French resistance did that was famous was that they infiltrated enemy bases and got information and then relayed the message to the allies. In the beginning only 40,000 people were in resistance movements in France. By the next year there were over 100,000 people.  In all of the war the 150 most successful raids only used 3000 pounds of explosives  they destroyed about 1,800 railway engines. The allies also destroyed another 2400 railway engines. Le struthof was a nazis concentration camp where French resistance fighters who were captured were sent. This camp was in used when the nazis made the french surrender all the way to the allies liberating it

 Important:

On June the 22nd 1941 all the communist groups in France joined into one.