All-New Terrorist Evil-Doers Trading Card #6 of 55 - La Resistance en France

LA RESISTANCE EN FRANCE

The French Resistance was a terrorist network of spies, gun smugglers, saboteurs, and resistance fighters, covertly and overtly collaborating with the Allied powers against the Axis and Axis-controlled French Vichy government, during World War II.

The term "Free French" was often used during the war to describe French men and women who were living outside of France --- in England, the US, and in various countries of the former French Colonial Empire --- who supported the Allied war effort from overseas, as well as to identify members of the French Resistance who were still living in occupied France and operating from within, to undermine the Vichy government through spying, sabotage, and in collusion with Allied invaders.

At right, a WWII French Resistance propaganda matchbook gives instructions in French on how to disrupt the Nazi war supply effort by derailing trains.  The matchbook was printed and manufactured in the USA, by the Diamond Match Company of New York City.

 Terrorist matchbook cover

Actively opposing the Nazi oppression and invasion of Poland in 1939, France and Great Britain became the first of what later came to be known as "the Allied Powers" at war against Nazi Germany and it's allies, who were to be called "the Axis Powers."  Fighting against the German tactic of "Blitzkrieg," or "lightning war" style surprise attacks on multiple fronts, the Allies quickly lost Poland in October of 1939, and more unexpectedly, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium, all during the first half of 1940.

Boulogne, France, fell on May 23, and Dunkirk, France, was lost on June 4.  On June 5, French prime minister Paul Reynaud, representing the old "Third Republic" government of France, sacked Edouard Daladier, and appointed Charles De Gaulle as his minister of war.  De Gaulle was visiting London on June 14, when Nazi forces invaded and occupied Paris.  When De Gaulle returned to France on June 16, he discovered the Henri-Philippe Petain had ousted Paul Reynaud as premier, and was forming a new government, out of the Vichy political movement which had sought collaboration with Germany throughout the inter-war period, and was now seeking an armistice with Germany.

In danger of being arrested by the new French government, de Gaulle beat a path back to England.  The following day, June 17, 1940, he broadcast an appeal on BBC radio, for French men and women to join him and the British in the fight against Nazi Germany and the German Army.  By the end of July, only 7,000 people had volunteered to join the Free French forces.  The attacks by the British Royal Air Force on the French Navy at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar caused bitterness in France and did not encourage former members of the French Army to escape to Britain.

French colonial territories began to support de Gaulle.  This included Chad, French Equatorial Africa, French Indochina and French territories in India, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.  Free French forces took part in fighting in Egypt, Syria, Eritrea and Ethiopia. General Marie-Pierre Koenig and his Free French unit did particularly well against German General Erwin Rommel at Bir Hacheim in June 1942.

The Free French Navy (FNLF) which had fifty ships and some 3,600 men operated as an auxiliary force to the British Royal Navy during the war.

The French Resistance gradually grew in strength.  General Charles De Gaulle was keen to unite the different groups under his leadership.  Jean Moulin, who had spent time in London with De Gaulle, was sent back to France and was given the task of uniting the various groups into one organization.

Moulin arranged meetings with people such as Henry Frenay (Combat), Emmanuel d'Astier (Liberation-sud), Jean-Pierre Lévy (Francs-Tireur), Pierre Villon (Front National), Daniel Mayer and Pierre Brossolette (Comité d'Action Socialiste), Charles Tillon and Pierre Fabien (Frances-Tireurs Partisans) and Charles Delestraint (Armée Secrete).  After much discussion Moulin persuaded the eight major resistance groups to form the Conseil National de la Resistance (CNR) and got their agreement to join the Free French forces during the liberation of France.

After the D-day landings, the Free French forces numbered over 400,000 men and women.  Of those, 230,000 were based in Algiers and could not take part in the liberation of France.  The French Resistance in Paris, and in other parts of occupied France, provided sanctuary and safe passage for Poles, Jews, Americans, and other refugees from Nazi Germany throughout the war, performed acts of open resistance and sabotage against the Nazis and the Vichy government, and assisted the Allied invaders, prior to and during the D-day invasion, and in various other military actions and covert operations against the Axis.

 

Partial Timetable of World War II and French Involvement:

The text of this trading card was freely adapted and brazenly plagiarized by the Curmudgeonly Old Fussbudget from several uncredited original sources.
 
Free French Forces: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWfreefrench.htm
British Attack French Warships: http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jul40/f03jul40.htm
Review: France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944: http://www3.uakron.edu/hfrance/reviews/zaretsky4.html
World War II Campaigns: The Resistance --- France: http://histclo.hispeed.com/essay/war/ww2/camp/eur/res/ww2-resfr.html
The Spanish Government and The Axis: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/spain/spmenu.htm
 
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