June 5, 1944. A group of French farmers huddle around
a radio tuned to the London broadcast. If they're caught,
they will be thrown in prison. Perhaps tortured, perhaps even executed. But they listen anyway.
And then they hear it: A single line from a French poem tossed in amongst a hundred nonsense
phrases disguised as personal messages. A cheer goes up and the farmers
grab their guns. That was their signal. The liberation starts tonight. This episode is sponsored by Wargaming.
New players can download World of Tanks and use the code "Neptune"
for free goodies. Link in the description. Four years before
the Normandy beach landings the French government signed an armistice that turned all of Northern France
into a Nazi occupied zone. They insisted that surrender
was the only way to save their people from being crushed
by the unstoppable German war machine. But from the first moment German army
boots marched down the streets of Paris resistance groups
began to spring up all over France. The early resistance groups were small,
disorganized and independent. They had enthusiasm but no direction other than a burning desire
to kick the Germans out of their country. And there were not many of them. Most chose to put their faith
in what remained of the French government, which had fled south to the city of Vichy. They claimed to control
unoccupied, Southern France. But really they just did
whatever the Germans told them. The early resistance lashed out by
attempting to hurt or kill German soldiers. But all they managed to do
was provoke vengeance. Hitler ordered
the mass execution and deportation of several thousand
French Jews and communists in retaliation for strikes
made by the early resistance groups. The message was clear: If you hurt our people
we will hurt yours more. The resistance
needed to find ways to fight back without inviting retribution
and making things worse. And things had gotten pretty bad. By now, the German war machine, which had ground up the French armies
in less than six weeks, had a desperate need for natural resources
and industrial power. Two things that France had in abundance. They imposed tight rations
on their French subjects and began redirecting all the wealth
of France to fuel their conquering army. So that became the new resistance target: Take out the factories and the rail roads
so that Germans couldn't use them. As long as they didn't harm any Germans,
the harshest reprisals never came. The British had that same idea. They parachuted agents into France
to begin forming resistance networks, recruiting citizens they could trust
and linking up with existing groups if they could find them. One of those agents would have a radio
that could transmit messages back to London, requesting supply drops
with weapons and explosives so the resistance could get to work. But radios powerful enough to transmit
across the Channel were in short supply. So they turned to Radio London,
a public French language station that had been created specifically
to counter German propaganda and organize protests
from safely across the English Channel. Radio London began to open
and conclude every program with a nonsensical jumble of phrases
that it called "personal messages" which were actually coded messages
for the resistance. The radio operators hiding in France would contact British headquarters
with the requested supply drop and give them a random phrase,
like "Pierre says hello". Then, instead of resistance members
coming back to the safe house for updates, they could listen at home on their radios. If Pierre said "hello", they would
head to their prearranged drop point. This radio system, the same one
that would be used on D-Day to call the Normandy resistance cells
to action, was operated by yet another group
devoted to the liberation of France: The Free French. Back when the Germans
had taken over Northern France, a little-known general, Charles de Gaulle,
escaped across the Channel to England. He had been appointed to government office
only twelve days before but now found himself faced
with the prospect of watching his country and the government he was
supposed to serve surrender to Germany. De Gaulle would not have it. He got on the British radio and called
for all of France to rise up and fight. He invited all the soldiers
who had fled from the invading Germans to join him now in London to regroup
and take their country back. And he vowed to keep speaking on the radio
so that those who couldn't leave France would know that the flame
of French resistance still burned bright. Inspiring words.
But very few people heard them. Most French people weren't in the habit
of listening to British radio broadcasts. But those who did
began to spread the word. Of 100,000 French soldiers
who had escaped to Britain 7,000 decided to stay with de Gaulle.
It was small, but it was a start. And with that start de Gaulle vowed
to take France back from the Germans and the Vichy government
that had surrendered. He knew that a small force
couldn't accomplish that on its own. He needed to win support
from Great Britain and the United States and coordinate the scattered groups
of the French resistance. Both would prove very difficult. Winston Churchill recognized de Gaulle
as leader of the Free French resistance but balked at acknowledging him
as leader of France itself. After all, de Gaulle had never
been elected the leader of France. And now he was trying
to claim the right to lead a country he couldn't set foot in because
its government had sentenced him to death. To make matters worse, de Gaulle
rubbed President Roosevelt of the US exactly the wrong way. But the same arrogance
that drove Roosevelt away also proved to be the fire that de Gaulle
had promised to keep burning for France. Piece by piece,
he built a government in exile, appealing to generals and bureaucrats
to abandon the Vichy government and join his cause instead. Because of his determination to push
himself forward as true leader of France he forced the Allies to treat France
as an ongoing partner in the war effort and not as a defunct and conquered nation
like many others under the German thumb. By 1942, two years before
the landings at Normandy, his efforts had begun to bear fruit. He had appointed a leader to coordinate
the resistance on his behalf and succeeded in forming
a central committee that was loyal to him. British agents began to coordinate
their own resistance with the Free French, although they didn't trust him entirely. They did keep
a few of their networks secret. Nevertheless, they worked together
to create detailed plans to support the upcoming allied invasion. They would target rail roads, telephone
systems and electrical installations to sabotage Germany's ability to mobilize
their defences once the Allies landed. And that one small resistance movement
had grown enormously over the four years of occupation. Now, over a hundred thousand combatants stood ready with weapons and explosives that had been parachuted in by drops
coordinated through Radio London. The Allies and the Free French had pushed
back German control in the French empire, winning massive victories
in the French colonies of North Africa, and proving that a properly organized
French army could stand up to Germany. The Germans responded to that success
by reaching for more control of France. They ended any pretence
of the Vichy government's independence and overran the southern countryside,
which only alienated more French people and bolstered recruitment
for the resistance. But Germany's greatest gifts
to the resistance were the invasion of Russia
and the subsequent labor draft in France. When the Germans broke
their uneasy truce with Russia they galvanized the many communist groups
in France to take up arms against them. These brand new resistance groups
never entirely accepted the leadership of the Free French
or the British agents. But they were well-organized
in their independence and made good use of the supplies
those agents gave them. Meanwhile, to compensate for the men
they had sent away to fight Russia, Germany began to draft young Frenchmen
to serve as forced labour in their machine. Many fled the draft by running to
the only group that would fight for them: The resistance. So when resistance members
gathered around their radios on June 5 and finally heard the words
that meant the liberation was on its way, they celebrated and then got to work. In the span of a single day,
they took down 577 rail roads, 30 driving roads
and 32 telecommunication sites. They cut off several panzer divisions from
moving north to join the German defence, giving the Allies precious time
to establish a beach head before German reinforcements
could arrive. Together with ordinary French citizens,
many of whom joined the resistance in such numbers that the Allies
didn't have enough weapons for them, they helped guide and support
the paratroopers to strike key targets and begin dismantling
German control of France. For all of the struggle, setbacks
and even the surrender that France faced it was as de Gaulle predicted
in that fateful radio address that first brought together
the forces of the Free French. But has the last word been said?
Must hope disappear? Is defeat final? No! Thanks again to Wargaming
for sponsoring this Extra History episode. If you are watching from Europe,
check out the Extra Credit's Choice bundle in the World of Tanks premium shop.
Link in the description.
