In Spring of 1940, after several months of a “phoney war”, during which since September 3, 1939, French and German forces had been observing each other attentively over their respective fortifications while the isolated Polish army was being crushed in the east, the Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, decided to launch an attack on the west.

The “panzerdivisionen” powers, with the support of the Luftwaffe, went through Belgium to bypass the imposing, but unnecessary Maginot line which guarded the Rhine, and on May 10, 1940, thronged into the north of France.

After a few weeks of “Blitzkrieg”, and despite the sometimes heroic but hopeless defense, came the rout: the German forces entered Paris and the French army was crushed. The British troops present on French soil had to hastily withdraw before re-embarking at Dunkirk under very difficult and bloody conditions. These events triggered off a huge wave of exodus: six million civilians flooded the roads, escaping from the invaders. One and a half million French soldiers were captured and made prisoners in stalags and oflags. The government of Paul Reynaud resigned.

The June 22, 1940, Armistice

On June 17, 1940, Field Marchal Pétain formed a new government and five days later, France found herself forced to sign an armistice at Rethondes, in the Compiègne forest, in a wagon, – a humiliating refinement decided by Hitler- where Germany had had to sign on her own the November 11, 1918, armistice…

In accordance with the terms of the armistice, France was broken up and subjugated. She was artificially cut in two by a demarcation line which started from between Nantua and Geneva, passed through Dôle, Moulins and Bourges, and continued to the east of Tours, Poitiers and Angoulême, before ending at the Spanish borders, in the east of Hendaye. The line was guarded strictly by German troops and crossing was only authorized upon the presentation of an “ausweiss”. On the north of this line, Alsace and Lorraine were annexed by the Reich, and the  rest of the zone was occupied by German troops.

On the south of the line, was the temporary “free” zone, placed under the influence of the government of collaboration installed at Vichy and the members of its Milice, and which in its turn, as from November 1942, became occupied by the Wehrmacht and controlled by the Gestapo.

The June 18, 1940, Appeal

While the armistice was at the point of being signed, Charles de Gaulle, a colonel of the armored corps, who had just been appointed three weeks earlier as “a temporary brigadier general”, issued an appeal over the radio all the way from London where he had taken refuge, calling on all French citizen (soldiers and civilians) to put up stiff resistance both internally and externally.

This was the famous “June 18 Appeal” in which the General galvanized his compatriots with his peculiar energetic expressions :

“France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war!”

“No matter what happens, the French Resistance flame must not die and will not die!”

This signal instigated and encouraged the creation of numerous movements and resistance networks on the French territory, both inside and outside of the occupied zone.

With its initial limited means and subsequent supplies from the allies, the French Internal Resistance had as its primary objective to wage war against the “Colorado beetles” – a parasite name scornfully given to the German invaders -, and the militiamans of the Vichy collaborationist government.

The internal resistance at the beginning was characterized by isolated actions of young men and women who were expressing their indignation towards the occupation, but hardly went beyond the writing and circulation of tracts and anti-Nazi inscriptions. Various movements, which were often politicized, started to be organized as from the beginning of 1941. Later on, military actions were engaged by networks of volunteer resistance fighters, snipers and partisans. Their missions were to gather intelligence information and have it transmit to the allies, carry out sabotage on industrial installations and transportation facilities which helped in the provision of supplies to the German forces, as well as on communication installations. Resistance fighters’ networks successfully orchestrated the escape of prisoners and ally pilots who had been captured by the enemy. The clandestine press produced several tens of thousands of newspapers as well as forged papers which people with illegal status, especially the Jewish population, badly needed to avoid being interned in a concentration camp, which to them, during this era of terror, was synonymous to sure death. Assassination attempts were carried out against the Germans and their collaborators, leading to terrible retaliations against hostages who were taken at random, and executed.

Ils avaient vingt ans... Les représailles des nazis en France
- 1944 - Collection Jean Lefevre -

Early 1943, with more and more French citizens refusing to be drafted for the compulsory labor decreed by the Vichy government, the ranks of the maquis swelled and their guerilla actions intensified, inflicting considerable losses on the enemy. France had several great maquis, notably those of Glières, Mont-Mouchet and Vercors, who immobilized huge German units, thereby preventing them from participating at other fronts.

Volunteers who decided to join the Resistance knew their decision was a dangerous one. To the ruthless bloodthirsty German invaders, a resistance fighter or a maquis was not a soldier, but a terrorist; and whenever any of them was captured he had to be tortured and subsequently executed by firing squad, or transported in a NN (Nacht und Nebel) wagon to a death camp.

About 200,000 persons are estimated to have participated in or carried out acts of resistance. Close to one third of this number were killed while fighting in the maquis or in the cities, sent to concentration camps or shot.

General de Gaulle, thanks to the audience granted him by the BBC, played an essential role by bringing together the various units of the Resistance and by making the allies recognize him as the leader of the unified Resistance.

In 1943, he used, amongst others, as a means of integration, the National Resistance Council (CNR), and so had Jean Moulin shunted off to France. Moulin was caught, tortured and ended up dying in Nazi gaols. The French National Liberation Committee (CFLN) formed in Algiers was transformed in June 1944 into the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRA).

Traction avant Citroen F.F.I.
La Charte, décembre 2007

In Spring of 1944, the Internal French Forces (FFI) were well organized and became able to participate efficiently in the liberation of the national territory. The southwest of France as well as the Massif Central were liberated by the Internal French Forces alone. Paris was liberated by rebel resistant fighters, with the support of tanks from the Leclerc division. Many maquis were then incorporated into the 1st French Army, during the latter’s advance alongside the Allies, and continued fighting until the Germans finally surrendered on May 8, 1945.

• Le superbe site de la résistance alpine, avec le chant de la libération
• Jean Moulin
• La résistance gersoise : bref historique
• Chants de la résistance
• La libération du Tarn
• La résistance dans la Drôme
• La Résistance dans le Vexin
• Les fusillés du Mont-Valérien