Figure 1.--Many French Maqui youth wear forced into the Resistance movement by the Germans who were conscripting the French to transport to the Reich for war work. This youth wears his FFI partisan patch proudly. Note the Cross of Lorraine on the French flag patch clearly visible on his sleeve. This photo was taken just outside of Cherbourg, after the D-Day invasion. It was an Acme News press photo dated July 17, 1944.

Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior--FFI) were the Resistance military forces united under the command of Général Koenig. The FFI was formed after the Allied landings in Normandy (June 6, 1944). With the German forced to focus on the Allied build up, the French partisans to began operating more openly and in larger units. The FFI made contact with the Allied military command in Normandy as well as the Free French (Gaullist) Provisional Government. The FFI operated, however, under a separate command structure, in part because the Communists constituted an impoprtant part of the FFI's effective strength. The FFI did not have uniforms, but they did wear arm bands or other insignia ifentifying themselves. The FFI claimed that because of their insignia as well as open military operations and command structure that they qualified as legal combatants based on the definitions included in the 1929 Geneva Convention. The Germans, however, refused to recognize the FFI as a legally constituted combatant force. The German position was that asca result of the 1940 armistice that France had laid down its arms and that French citizens attacking German forces were illegal combatants and criminals. The FFI contended that the 1940 Armistice was no longer valid. Here I am not sure if the legal argument was that the Germans had breeched the terms od the Armistace with actions such as the occupation of the unoccupied zone or if they did not see the Vichy Government as the legal French Govdernment. Probably both. The FFI maintained that their men captured by the Germans should be treated as POWS. The Germans often killed captured FFI members in summary executions. The FFI assisted the Allied forced in Normandy. I do not yet have details on the extent of the assistance provided. There most notab;le action was rising against the Germans in Paris (August 1944). I believe the FFI operated almost exclusively behind German lines. Once the Allied liberated an area, the Freen French forces which became the new French Army took over combatantant activities.

Created: 5:48 AM 9/10/2005
Last updated: 5:48 AM 9/10/2005