Les maquisards de France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale : Combattants irréguliers ou armée de la nation ?

Résumé Fr En

L’image de la jeunesse française libérant, Sten au poing, la France occupée à l’été 1944 domine le souvenir des maquis. Pourtant, cette identité combattante fut aussi une construction. Depuis le tournant de 1942 et de 1943, les maquisards avaient connu une militarisation progressive, soumise aux contraintes de la clandestinité. Combattants irréguliers aux yeux du régime de Vichy et de l’occupant, ils appartenaient pour la France libre à l’armée de la nation et furent intégrés en tant que tels à la chaîne de commandement alliée. Aucun de ces deux processus n’allant de soi, ils invitent à interroger l’identité et les pratiques combattantes de ces civils en armes telles qu’elles s’improvisèrent sur le terrain, mais aussi telles que les perçurent les états-majors.

French maquis during the Second World WarThe image of France’s youth, freeing their occupied country during the summer of 1944 armed only with Sten guns, dominates public memory of the maquis. However, this combatant identity was a careful construction. At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, the maquis, or armed members of the Resistance operating as militias, were gradually militarized, a process which was somewhat constrained by the clandestine nature of their existence. While the occupying Vichy government denounced them as irregular troops, Free France recognised them as members of its national forces and as such, integrated them into the Allies’ chain of command. Since neither of these two processes was a foregone conclusion, they allow us to examine the fighting practices of these armed civilians as they improvised on the ground, and as they were perceived by military headquarters.