Members of the Maquis in La Tresorerie
- For other uses, see Maquis.
The Maquis (IPA /ma'ki/) were the dominantly rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance.
Originally the word meant a high ground in southeastern France and covered with scrub growth. It is the kind of terrain armed resistance groups hid in. Members of those bands were called maquisards. Eventually the term became an honorific that meant armed resistance fighter.
Most maquisards operated in mountainous areas, Brittany and southern France. They relied on guerrilla tactics to harass Vichy France Milice and German occupation troops. The Maquis also aided the escape of downed Allied airmen, Jews and others pursued by the Vichy and German Authorities. Some maquisards did commit atrocities as well as raid villages but usually they could rely on some degree of sympathy or cooperation. In March 1944, the German Army began a terror campaign throughout France. This included reprisals against civilians living in areas where the French Resistance were active. Most of the Maquis cells - like the Vercors - took names after the area they were operating in. Their size varied from maybe ten men(or women) to thousands.
Politically, maquis were very diverse - from right-wing nationalists to communists. Some Maquis bands that operated in southwest France were composed entirely by left-wing Spanish veterans of the Spanish Civil War.
When Germans began a forced labor draft in France in the beginning of 1943, thousands of young men fled and joined the Maquis. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) helped with supplies and agents. The American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) also began to send its own agents to France in cooperation with the SOE.
During Allied invasion of Normandy, the Maquis and other groups played a major role in delaying the German mobilization. As Allied troops advanced, the French Resistance rose against the Nazi occupation forces and their garrisons en masse. For example, Nancy Wake's group of 7000 maquisards was involved in a pitched battle with 22,000 Germans on June 20, 1944. Some Maquis groups took no prisoners and some German soldiers preferred to surrender to Allied soldiers instead of facing maquisards. Captured Maquis faced torture and being shot or sent to concentration camps, where few surivived.
The Allied offensive was slowed and the Germans were able to counterattack in southeast France. On the Vercors plateau, a Maquis group fought 15,000 Waffen SS soldiers under general Karl Pflaum and was defeated with 600 casualties.
When De Gaulle dismissed resistance organizations after the liberation of Paris, many Maquis returned to their homes. Many also joined the new French army to continue the fight.
It was standard practice among the Maquis to identify members by wearing a Basque beret because it was common enough to not arouse suspicion but distinctive enough to be effective.
Among the famous maquis were:
