France, WW II, and the Resistance - Part II

It’s been a whole week between postings, so a quick history review may be in order for those of you who have been out of school a while, or have spent too many hours watching ‘Desperate Housewives’. On the other hand – just go back and look at last week’s posting – can’t penalize those who are keeping up!


Isolated acts of resistance began in France almost immediately after the Armistice in June 1940. German personnel were killed, sabotage was committed, and intelligence was gathered and passed to Britain, which at that time, and for the next year, was the only country still actively at war with Germany. The German Army responded to killings of Germans with terrible reprisals – between ten and fifty French hostages were shot for each German killed, often family or friends of the assailant. One can hardly fault the potential ‘Resistants’ for quickly deciding that this path was not a good one.

Execution of Hostages

So, with British assistance, efforts were first focused on intelligence gathering and creating a propaganda network, and also on organizing small cells for those purposes and for future operations as needed. Sabotage operations aimed at such things as rail transport were also undertaken.

Resistants Planting Explosives

In London, De Gaulle continued to slowly build support, working with French Military personnel who either were stranded in London after the Armistice, or who were in French overseas colonies and territories. It was a slow process, a few colonies declared for de Gaulle, some military personnel signed on, but after a year, de Gaulle had only 10,000 men in Britain. In France several Resistance organization developed, especially in Lyon, under various local leaders, some of whom looked to de Gaulle for leadership, others that simply wanted to free France from German occupation and acknowledged no leadership other than local. Several things then happened over the next year or two. German oppression created more and more opposition, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the Communist party was ordered by Stalin to cease opposing the war and to actively oppose Germany. The third occurrence, the one that produced the greatest growth in resistance activities, was a new requirement, imposed by the Germans in 1942. This required France to supply 250,000 workers to German industry – essentially an industrial draft. The law developed into a scheme called Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO), or Obligatory Work Service. The French Vichy Government tried to sell this to the people as way for Frenchmen to make money for their families back home. The prospect of a year or two in Germany, essentially doing (paid) forced labor for the German war effort was not appealing to most young Frenchmen. Many went into hiding and turned to resistance activities, joining existing cells and proving a huge boost to the ability of the cells to carry out their tasks. Families, especially mothers, supported their sons, aiding the Resistance effort in many small ways.


De Gaulle continued to work at unifying and getting the various ‘Resistant’ groups to work together effectively, so that their efforts could be multiplied through cooperation and the groups could be regularly supplied with arms and equipment. In January, 1942, as the focus of this effort, he directed a most remarkable man, Jean Moulin, to go to France as his personal representative, and unify the groups.

French Flag with the Cross of Lorraine - Symbol of Free France!

Next posting – a look at this individual – what he accomplished and the price he paid.