Surviving as the French resistance

During the second world war, the country of France was overrun by the superior German military and instead of choosing to fight a battle they knew they would lose and risk the entire country being destroyed, they chose to surrender on 22 June 1940, the country of France came under the complete control of the Nazi regime. Many of Frances’s soldiers either disbanded or fled to other countries that were resisting the Germans, leaving its streets to be swarmed by thousands of German troops.

This didn’t really sit well with the general population of France and after enough war crimes had been committed, it annoyed the locals enough for them to form resistance groups with the goal of hurting the occupation any way they could. This was obviously very risky and the job had a high mortality rate, so what was it really like surviving as the French resistance?

Who were they?

They called themselves the Maquis and referred to their fighting groups as Maquisards. Between 10% and 20% of their numbers were made up of Jews trying to escape from the Nazis, with the vast majority of the remainder made up of French civilians and members of the French army that chose not to disband. After they became more established they would rescue people running from the Nazis or any allied soldiers who found themselves stranded in the country, some of which ended up joining the group. It was because of the French resistance that many Allied pilots and sailors made it back home alive.

What did the French resistance do?

Because they lacked the numbers and weapons to take on the German army directly, they did whatever they could to damage the occupation and help its enemies, which in this case was mostly Britain and the United States. At first, there were people acting alone and committing acts like helping people escape from the Germans and trying to sabotage things, like cutting radio wires and vandalizing vehicles, but after these people found each other they formed into an actual resistance force.

After a while when these groups grew and became more established, they began to increase the frequency and severity of their attacks, even killing small patrols of Germans when they had the chance. The most damage the resistance did to the Nazi regime was to pass information to the forces planning on invading Europe, giving them vital information about German troop numbers and the locations of military facilities. The information the resistance passed to the Allies during the war undoubtedly saved many lives and greatly advanced the Allies‘ ability to invade the country.

What weapons did the resistance use?

Initially, they were armed with whatever they could get their hands on, and because the vast majority of them were civilians this meant things like hunting rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. After they had launched enough attacks on the occupation, the Germans brought in a new policy which made it not worth attacking them in the first place. If a single German soldier was killed by the resistance then 20 random French civilians would be gunned down, which meant killing them openly was no longer an option. The resistance used stealth to avoid capture and trying to hide a hunting rifle under your coat wasn’t exactly easy, so after the initial attacks stopped due to the repercussions, they opted for smaller and easy-to-hide firearms, or even nothing at all.

(The Sten sub-machine gun, by far the most commonly donated weapon from the British to the Resistance)

Small handguns and revolvers were the only guns they were able to hide but because they couldn’t take the Germans on directly, they began to use information as their primary weapon. Passing the location of a Nazi weapons plant to the allies for a bombing run would do more damage than killing a patrol somewhere, and so after the initial attacks stopped they would rarely carry weapons when out in the open due to the risk of being searched.

On June 6, 1944, a huge Allied invasion force hit the beaches of northern France, and with it came country-wide fighting. After this point, the resistance stepped up their efforts and once again began to launch open attacks on the Germans with bigger and better weapons, mostly donated from the allies like the British who airdropped the sten submachine gun into France to arm resistance members.

How did they survive?

Hiding would be the short answer. The Nazi regime would arrest and torture anyone they thought was involved with or knew about the resistance, most of which talked and gave away information. Around 40,000 French civilians were killed in prisons set up by the Nazis, many of which were just normal and innocent people. Operating openly wasn’t an option, so in order to survive they would have to remain in the shadows. To do this they would use fake identities to move between areas and set up bases in secret locations, the most famous of which were the catacombs.

Beneath the city of Paris are several hundred miles of tunnels built initially as a mine, then expanded to house the remains of millions of bodies they didn’t have room to bury in the cemeteries. This tunnel network has a huge number of entrances that spread across the whole city, and since the tunnels are so small and plentiful, it makes them an excellent place to hide. To this day no one has made a full map of the catacombs or explored the lowest levels due to safety concerns, but during the war, it was the only option for a permanent base in such a huge city.

When it came to supplies and acquiring the things they needed, the population of France offered a helping hand. Even if people were unable or just too scared to fight, they were often more than willing to help out those who would, offering food, clothing, and general supplies to members of the resistance. Later on in the war, the Allies gave the resistance any supplies they could to help them, most of which came from Britain as it was the only country in Europe involved in the war that wasn’t occupied by German troops and was only a quick boat trip away from the lengthy French coast.