French Resistance to Normandy Invasion

Came across this report in the War Diary of 84th Field Company RE this week, while in the archives. They were an assault engineer unit, clearing lanes through minefields and exits on Sword Beach on D Day, and post D Day spent their time mine clearing on the beaches, which cost them quite a few casualties.

This report hints at a darker side to the arrival of the Allies in terms of the local population. Am sure it wasn't representative of them all, but interesting nevertheless.

 

I wonder what happened to her ?
A very interesting document - easy to imagine that the Allies would have had no security problems in France.

 

Cheers Paul.....Interesting reading. Sounds like her sister got a real bang (Sorry-I'm sure someone else was thinking it)

I guess the same can be said for any country really. There will always be those that agree and disagree with an invading force. Especially those that collaborated, I expect they may have already been aware of what was to come for them once the Germans started retreating and the good times were over.

 

Paul,
That is a great post and very enlightening as to the conditions prevailing for the troops.

Regards

Tom

 

My Father (and a couple of other vets) told me that some of the French were very anti-British. There were occasions where the French civilians wanted payment for water for drinking purposes during the Normandy campaign.

 

I wonder if they called The British 'Roost Beef' back then too?

 

Anti-British feelings among some of the French at the time was understandable, as the Mers-el-Kebir attacks of 1940 was still very fresh in many minds. I believe this factor was perhaps one of the many reasons why British participation in the Dragoon (Anvil) landing was minimal. While I do not have the source(s) on hand, I do recall reading on more than one occassion, that several British commanders were themselves very well aware of an underlaying sense of animosity being directed towards them as a result of Operation Catapult.

That said, there were undoubtedly incidents in which French individuals, either directly affiliated with Vichy or collaborators with nothing to lose, who would use violence against the Allies. However, it hardly qualifies such a broad title as "French Resistance to Normandy Invasion". It gives the false impression of the general populace somehow being "anti-Liberation".

 

Anti-British feelings among some of the French at the time was understandable, as the Mers-el-Kebir attacks of 1940 was still very fresh in many minds. I believe this factor was perhaps one of the many reasons why British participation in the Dragoon (Anvil) landing was minimal. While I do not have the source(s) on hand, I do recall reading on more than one occassion, that several British commanders were themselves very well aware of an underlaying sense of animosity being directed towards them as a result of Operation Catapult.

That said, there were undoubtedly incidents in which French individuals, either directly affiliated with Vichy or collaborators with nothing to lose, who would use violence against the Allies. However, it hardly qualifies such a broad title as "French Resistance to Normandy Invasion". It gives the false impression of the general populace somehow being "anti-Liberation".

I do not think it was events some four years previously which caused some French to become disenchanted so long.I think it was rather that some of the French had entered the "comfort feeling" of an accomodation to the occupation that they resented the struggle and turmoil necessary to evict the occupiers.Don't forget that Normandy was a larder for the Germans and French alike and access to food for the normal citizen in Normandy was not critical,unlike the urban areas of France where citizens could starve unless they engaged in black market activites.The coastal area was protected by a 30km restriction area and only locals had authorised access in these forbidden zones which became enclaves with outsiders not having the necessary paperwork to enter.No doubt some individuals did not like change that would certainly come with the liberation.

There were some who resented the loss of their crops for example.The destruction of Caen would come later than this report and the French would lose 12000 civilians when the town was taken which must have given rise to resentment.

Of course, there were civilians who for one reason or the other were emotionally tied to the Germans.Some had relationships and others were to prove the relationship strong by marrying as soon as they could after the war.On the German collapse,some might remember the hordes of Wehrmacht force travelling slowly north to surrender to the Allies on the Loire accompanied by their "camp followers"

There were instances of civilians receiving swift justice at the hands of Allied troops.I do remember a report that revealed a case where British troops came across French civilians who were found stripping British dead and were immediately shot.No matter how the course of war runs, such people will be alaways around.I have never seen this confirmed but it worth remembering that files giving the accurate information on such incidents are closed to public access for 100 years from 1945.

However, it would be wrong to categorise such feelings and incidents being anti invasion.The citizens on the continent would, as all who had been under the jackboot,wish to be liberated quickly and the Allies to do it,but pass through their region as soon as possible.

Finally we should not forget the tremendous assistance given by the organised groups of resistance to the Allies to enable a successful landing and victory over German forces in Normandy to take place.

 

That said, there were undoubtedly incidents in which French individuals, either directly affiliated with Vichy or collaborators with nothing to lose, who would use violence against the Allies. However, it hardly qualifies such a broad title as "French Resistance to Normandy Invasion". It gives the false impression of the general populace somehow being "anti-Liberation".

The title is a strap-line, that's why I qualified it with:

This report hints at a darker side to the arrival of the Allies in terms of the local population. Am sure it wasn't representative of them all, but interesting nevertheless.

 

Arsenal vg-33
Anti-British feelings among some of the French at the time was understandable, as the Mers-el-Kebir attacks of 1940 was still very fresh in many minds
A good point , the obvious pain being exacerbated the diet of Anglophobic propaganda from Vichy and Germany to reinforce it .
The small pistol - self defence ?
If it was a Mauser she most likely obtained it from a German source , or picked it up from "the battlefield" ?
No doubt being arrested potentially brought her to the attentions of those who administered justice as they saw fit to potential "friends" of the Germans , you would wionder at her volunteering the information about her sister and the German soldier, given the emotive climate prevailing at at that time.

 

One thing that struck me in the book I'm reading at the mo. There seems to be a lot of colaboration with the Germans by the locals regarding giving them directions etc. I wonder if they were sending them the wrong way (As I used to do to people when I was a child) or whether they were just happy to see the back of them.

Cheers
Andy

 

RE 101 sub area landed HQ 18 GHQ troops 84 Fd Co RE, 91 Fd Co, 50 Mech equip section, and 8 and 9 stores sections. Together with 53 Pioneer Co on D day.
Thereafter 84 Fd Co RE seems to have vanished off the scene, for I can find no other mention of them in the RE annals, that describe the actions of the RE units in.... or under command of the Third British Infantry Div on Sword Beach ....D day onwards?
Sapper

 

Interesting subject! I consider it as wrong to see one side as only the good and the other as only the bad in whatever war. Particuariliy if we come to the French. As it was stated above Mers el-Kebir and other similar "occurences" did not really lift the pro-allied feelings amongst many French. Further, once you are defeated (and actually the French did probably not expect to be defeated that easy), you have to arrange yourself somehow to survive. Only being of French nationality and invaded by the Germans did not automatically mean that many French were unlucky with the situation.

One of my colleagues is Alsacien. His father died when he was a small child. Until today, the mother insists that they had the better treatment under the German occupation than before under French rule and after the war again under French rule. She stated that the Germans healthcare assisted here whilst the French did not - any question where the sympathy goes?

Look at the colonies of France; although there was no German thread - did they really join the allied side? Only a few did.

 

Vichy existed because of Germany - the destruction of the French Fleet although tragic is to some extent understandable - British actions against French /Vichy holdings were always resisted and in West Africa , repulsed.
Perhaps if the boot had been on the other foot the French might have found themselves doing the same thing or at least thinking about it.
Had German moves in 1940/41 been made in the Med. with a view to expelling the British it is more than likely that Vichy would have helped them , the French were in an impossible position.

The Vichy did hand over French Indo China to the Japanese which certainly helped them in their move to the South east - but who could really have stopped the Japanese ?

The shifting border between France and Germany - bad feeling , mistrust and that being neither flesh nor fowl cannot have been to the benefit of the people who lived there.

Resistance to the Allies in general cannot have been major - any German courting or sensivitity towards the French had long gone with the occupation of Vichy.

 

The German decision to create Vichy France was not just a political one, it also allowed a supply corridor to exist into Europe, without it the supplies coming from Africa (fertilisers being an example) into France would not have made it, much (probably most) would have been unloaded then straight on the trains heading for Germany.

That would have been a bloody good shot for an amateur with a small pistol, but never mind what happened to her, did the Redcap make it ok?

 

When thinking of resistance to the Aliies a question to bear in mind is simply this , "Who would have the Germans back ?"



No need to put the answers on a postcard.

 

My view still stands as posted #9.regarding the incident on the Normandy beachhead

Collaborators will always be found with causations from personal or political reasons.They are found in all levels of society.There are many who were purely opportunists.

If we are to discuss Vichy, well that a different matter.Vichy can be regarded as "principled collaborators".Zealous Germanophiles who had been waiting in the wings to reveal themselves as fellow fascists.When they lost their two justifications for the Petain collaboration policy,their regime contracted in power and influence to metropolitan France.

 

Harry...I am tempoted to go into PPFFLJ mode.
"What did the Germans ever do for us ??"

Yes Vichy might have for obvious reaosns , no them , no us.