Behind Enemy Lines

Vichy’s decline was paralleled by the rise of the anti-German underground. Within weeks of the 1940 collapse, tiny groups of men and women had begun to resist. Some collected military intelligence for transmission to London; some organized escape routes for Allied airmen who had been shot down; some circulated anti-German leaflets; some engaged in sabotage of railways and German installations. The Resistance movement received an important infusion of strength in June 1941, when Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union brought the French Communist Party into active participation in the anti-German struggle. It was further reinforced by the German decision to conscript French workers; many draftees took to the hills and joined guerrilla bands that took the name Maquis (meaning “underbrush”). 

Over the course of the war, the French Resistance scored key victories against the German occupations forces. Resistance members tracked and ferreted-out French collaborators, assassinated many ranking Nazi officials, tapped the phones of the Abwehr's (German intelligence) Paris headquarters, and destroyed trains, convoys, and ships used by the German army. The resistance provided Allied forces with invaluable human intelligence resources and aided Allied troops who fell behind enemy lines. Resistance groups shielded political dissidents, refugees, and Jews escaping the Holocaust. They also helped in preparing for the D-Day invasions by attacking key communication centers and rail lines.

These numerous accomplishments carried a heavy price. German agents often infiltrated partisan groups, despite security precautions. When they captured a maquis, Gestapo agents employed torture as means of extracting the names of other resistance members. The Gestapo occasionally carried out bloody reprisals on innocent civilians after partisan sabotage operations. As many as 25,000 French men and women, members of the resistance and those suspected of aiding their cause, were sent to German concentration camps. Another 25,000 were executed in France by Gestapo agents, including the population of an entire Northern French village.

If there were any weaknesses of the blitzkrieg strategy is that it left many strongpoints and able-bodied soldiers behind the frontlines.  On July 3, 1941, Stalin addressed his nation by radio: “In the occupied regions,” he said, “the enemy and all his accomplices must be hounded and annihilated at every step and their measures frustrated.”  By the summer of 1942, there were 150,000 freedom fighters, or Partisans, combating the Nazi army behind enemy lines.  They were, in effect, guerrillas and terrorists whose main goal was to kill German and disrupt their war-making abilities.

The partisans were concentrated mainly in the forests of Byelorussia, bordering on Poland and the Ukraine.  From their hideouts, they made forays against German rear lines, gathering intelligence of troop movements, blowing up bridges, derailing trains, slashing telephone and telegraph lines, pouncing upon small enemy forces and setting fire to supply depots.  Stealth, deception and surprise were the hallmarks of their operations.  It was a dangerous lifestyle of hit-and-run.  The Germans reserved a special hatred for the partisans, and for these bold comrades, capture was tantamount to death—or worse.  Public hanging was merciful compared to the torture according to some captives.  The Germans broke their finger, burned the soles of their feet, and even amputated women’s breasts, before finishing off the maimed and dying with a bullet or noose.  Despite the danger, many signed up and were crucial parts damaging the Nazi war effort.