French Resistance

French Resistance

INTRO :

The French Resistance played a vital part in aiding the Allies during World War II. Whether it was by giving them information about German's location and other thing or whether it was by sabotaging railroads as well as plotting against Germans.

The French Resistance started as soon as the Occupation began, the French were feeling humiliated and with the Marshall Philippe Pétain setting up the Vichy government, small resistance groups began to form. At first, it wasn't unified but it was still something. On June 18th 1940, when Charles de Gaulle sent a message to French people from London, the resistance grew. Even though Pétain was collaborating with the Germans, the resistance grew more and more. By June 1941 they were already a lot more organized. Some groups (maquis)  were more violent, killing and hurting German occupied than other but they still helped the Allies. Members of the French Resistance would sabotage rail lines as they were more than 130 acts of sabotage each month as well as attacks on French railroad that were used by Germans. Some groups would harass the German police, the Gestapo or the Vichy militia while others would try to sabotage war production and power plants. French Resistance members were also very good spies like Violette Szabo (born Reine) who joined SOE to avenge her husband's death. She helped to completely restructure and reorder the shattered resistance movement in Normandy in 1943. She led a lot of sabotage missions against roads and railways as well as spotted potential bombing targets for the British. At the end, she was executed  on January 27, 1945.

The French Resistance developed an "under-ground railroad" system. They would use code names for each other and send only coded messages to communicate and operational units had their own cryptonym. The French Resistance also had an underground newspapers with coded articles and drawings. The Resistance had a pyramid system so that a member of a partisan organization would only interact with ne more than two others members of the organization. This strategy worked very well until Gestapo agents began to infiltrate the command echelons of various partisan groups. Still, the Resistance was very important because they would give British crucial information about the Germans. During D-Day, members of the resistance would deliberately damage tracks and trains. Secret messages were broadcast on the eve of D-Day telling SOE agents to make 'maximum effort' in carrying out acts of sabotage. After D-Day, the resistance continued, three-man special forces 'Jedburgh' teams made up of British, American and French were dropped into France. Nancy Wake was a fine example of the combined efforts of the SOE and French Resistance. In 1940, she joined the French Resistance in her locality and acted as a Courier, carrying messages between the 'underground' resistance groups. She helped more than a thousand escaped POWs and RAF personnel out of France. She was codenamed 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo when they began to be aware of Nancy's activities. She was number one on their wanted list but managed to escape to England and still helped by joining the French Section of the SOE. In 1944, she was parachuted into France to help preparations for the D-Day landings. She died on August 7th 2011 at age 98.

The French Resistance was a very important part of World War II. Without the French Resistance, perhaps the Allies wouldn't have won as the French Resistance had a major part in giving the Allies important information. They also helped a lot to slow down Germans with all the sabotages and they were of great help during D-Day.

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