Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women called the Maquis in rural areas [ 2 ] [ 3 ] who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. They also provided first-hand intelligence information, and escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind Axis lines.
The proportion of French people who participated in organized resistance has been estimated at from one to three percent of the total population. The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June Members provided military intelligence on German defences known as the Atlantic Wall , and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle for the Allies' invasion of Provence on 15 August.
The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed sabotage acts on electrical power grids, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. After the Allied landings in Normandy and Provence, the paramilitary components of the Resistance formed a hierarchy of operational units known as the French Forces of the Interior FFI with around , fighters in June By October , the FFI had grown to , members.
After the Battle of France and the second French-German armistice , the lives of the French continued unchanged at first. Most civilians remained neutral, but both the occupation of French territory [ 14 ] [ 15 ] and German policy inspired the formation of paramilitary groups dedicated to both active and passive resistance.
One of the conditions of the armistice was that the French must pay for their own occupation. This amounted to about 20 million German Reichsmarks per day, a sum that, in May , was approximately equivalent to four hundred million French francs. Prices soared, [ 19 ] leading to widespread food shortages and malnutrition, [ 20 ] particularly among children, the elderly, and members of the working class engaged in physical labour. The labour shortage was worsened by the large number of French prisoners of war held in Germany.
