The French Resistance in World War II

In France during World War II, a group of brave individuals banded together to free their country from the occupying German force. This group resisted the German army and showed courage in the darkest hour of their country's history. The French Resistance during World War II did many things that helped their country gains its freedom back as well as swing favor of the war toward the Allies.

Europe at this time was in turmoil, Hitler had come to power and with this Grand Marshall Henri-Philippe Petian of France signed an armistice with Germany (Dear 405). The Germans then divided France up into occupied and unoccupied zones with Germany controlling three-fifths of the country and the remaining part controlled by Petian under the French government (Simkin Online). The French army was then disbanded and the French were forced to pay $120,000,000 as a fine and France also had to pay two billion dollars a year as occupation costs (Polmar 302). The people of France were humiliated by the easy defeat of their country.
The French people had been assured by their government that the French army and the Maginot Line would be more than enough to stop any German offensive (Farah 609). The Maginot Line was a line of fortifications that ran along the border of France and Germany. The Maginot Line was built after World War I to protect the French from any more German attacks on their country. The Germans simply went around the Maginot Line using a new tactic called Blitzkrieg or lightening war. Blitzkrieg was when the German tanks attacked fast and hard, using speed to go around the Maginot Line through Belgium before the French could organize their defenses. Once this happened the French surrendered and the French people went into shock and no one resisted the Germans at first (Trueman Online).

After the initial shock of the German occupation wore off the French started to organize resistance movements. The first of these was "a group of scientists and lawyers working in Paris led by Boris Vilde began publishing a clandestine newspaper calling on the French people to resist the German occupation." (Simkin Online). This group was called Musee de L'Homme, they were later infiltrated by supporters of the French government and since the French government did not want to anger the Germans they arrested and executed all members (Simkin Online). Another one of the first groups was the Comite d'Action Socialiste which was organized by the Socialist party in France. Later the communist party in France formed their own group called Front National. Following this two more groups were formed called Francs-Tiruer and Liberation. Then in the spring of 1943 major resistance groups including Combat, Liberation, Francs-Tiruer, and Comite d'Action Socialiste combined and formed the Conseil National de la Resistance or CNR. The CNR made a charter that stated when France was free again it would have a minimum wage, equal education opportunity, and universal suffrage to all of its citizens (Dear 406).

While France was occupied the French Resistance did many things to free and remove the Germans as well as help the Allies. For example, Musee de L'Homme developed an information network that would gather intelligence and pass it along to the British. They passed along information that proved useful to the British attack on a German Naval base in Saint Nazaire in March 1942 (McNiell Online). Other groups helped the British as well including Free French. This was a group that was setup by British intelligence agency M16 and it was based in London. Free French sent agents into France to photograph German installations and troop movements to gather intelligence for an attack (Dear 406). Many resistance groups depended on funding and weapons that were provided by the Allies. These groups sabotaged factories in France that made German weapons. One of the factories was the Puegot factory which "saved lives that would have otherwise have been lost." (Dear 406). The French Resistance was also very powerful on its own without the help of outside countries. Maquis or fighting groups were first made in 1943 and these were the center of the resistance. Maquis would hide and operate in the forests around France and conduct guerrilla attacks on German installations and forces. Corsica was liberated by a Maquis group using these tactics (Dear 406). Some Maquis were very large because of a labor dispute with Germans that caused many workers to join Maquis (Bunting 197). Other Maquis groups entrenched themselves in the Savoyard Alps and were later able to repel German attacks on them and liberate that area. This greatly helped the liberation of Paris later (Dear 405). Also French coal miners went on strike which cost the Germans 500,000 tons of coal (Bunting 197). Other groups were less violent and would publish papers to help inform the French people of what was happening in their country while other groups would deface or destroy German propaganda.
One of the most important things that the French Resistance did was the help that they gave the Allies before and during D-Day. The day before D-Day, June 5th 1944, American General Dwight Eisenhower sent out a coded broadcast asking for the help of all French Resistance groups in committing acts of sabotage against the Germans to help the Allies establish a beachhead on Normandy. The resistance groups executed plans Green, Violet, and Blue. These consisted of sabotaging German railways, telephone line, and electrical power behind German lines. This caused the death, arrest, or deportation of 90,000 resistance fighters (Dear 406). Also the French attacked German garrisons in the towns of Tulle and Gueret. In retaliation for this the Germans killed 120 men in Tulle and 67 in Argenton. The French Resistance also slowed the SS 2nd Panzer Division on getting to Normandy to repel the Allies. In response to this the Germans marched into a French town the next day and killed 600 men, women, and children before setting the town on fire (Simkin Online).

By doing many different acts of sabotage the French Resistance was able to turn the outcome of World War II against the Germans and also free their country. After the war General Dwight Eisenhower wrote in his diary; "Throughout France the Resistance had been of inestimable value in the campaign. Without their great assistance the liberation of France would have consumed a much longer time and meant great losses to ourselves." (Simkin Online). Without the help of the French Resistance the British would not have been able to obtain valuable intelligence that helped them win battles such as the naval base at St. Nazaire. Also without the French Resistance the Allies might not have been able to make a beachhead at Normandy because the SS 2nd Panzer Division would have gotten to the beach on time and they might have been able to repel the Allies. Without a beachhead the Allies would never have been able to advance to the French country side and they would have not been able to liberate France. If they did not liberate France the Germans would have still had a strong base their and the Germans might not have ever been defeated.

Conclusion

If the French Resistance did not exist the Allies might not have been able to win this war. If the Allies did not win the war they would not have been able to save the millions of Jewish people that were being held in German concentration camps and all of the Jews in Europe may have been killed. Also the Germans might have been able to eventually overrun Britain and then Germany would have taken over the weakened Russia and controlled all of Europe. This would turn Germany into a superpower instead of the Soviet Union and the Germans would create nuclear weapons in the 1960's and they might have used them to take over the world and we would all be controlled by Germany. In conclusion, the French Resistance saved the war by helping the Allies overcome the Germans.

Work Cited

Bunting, Edward. World War II: Day by Day. London: Dorling Kindersley Book, 2001.
Dear, I.C.B. World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
McNeill, Tony. "Occupied France." The University of Sunderland. http://www.sun
derland.ac.uk/wos0tmc/occupied/resist.htm (March 20,2005).
Farah, Mounir A. and Andrea Berens Karls. World History. New York: Glencoe
McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Polmar, Norman. World War II: Encyclopedia of the War Years. New York: Random
House, 1996.
Simkin, John. "French Resistance." Spartacus. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/F
Resistance.htm (March 20, 2005).
Trueman. "French Resistance." The French Resistance. http://www.historylearningsite
.co.uk/resistance.htm (March 20. 2005).